Girls Fight Back

Sep 13, 2010 by Gretchen Seefried

The night Shannon McNamara died, Erin Weed was 843 miles away, but it felt as though she was right next door. Only 23 when she learned that one of her dearest friends had been murdered, Erin has spent almost a decade building Girls Fight Back to try to prevent such crimes from happening to other girls.  Girls Fight Back empowers women and girls to lead safe and peaceful lives through motivational keynotes and workshops at high schools, colleges and corporations. GFB is comprised of professional speakers (trained in self-defense) and talent agencies working together to produce live events in cities worldwide. Blending comedy with a deadly serious cause, Erin’s vision has impacted over half a million women since 2001.

Erin pointedly describes Shannon as one of her dearest friends, not best; she wasn’t the friend Erin spoke with daily, but the friend she ran to when life overwhelmed. “I was always the stressed-out overachiever type, while she was always the first to bust out her bikini and a lawn chair when the temperature even threatened to hit 65 degrees. I always wanted to be more like her. No one has ever enjoyed the simple things with such appreciation or was more present in life than Shannon.”

On June 12, 2001 Shannon was sleeping alone in her apartment in the tiny corn-fed town of Charleston, Illinois. She was close to finishing college – with only one semester to go. But that night, a former Marine broke into her home while she slept. An arsonist, woman-hater, rapist, and killer – he wore rubber gloves, as this was not his first time.  The evidence said that Shannon had fought. And so did the people in her apartment complex who heard the racket of her final battle but chose to close their windows. After all, it wasn’t their business.  Erin has committed herself to changing that notion, and to making sure the well-being of each other becomes everybody’s business.

Upon hearing the news, Erin remembers thinking, “But things like this don’t happen in Charleston…” It’s thoughts like these she credits with making her an effective teacher of personal safety and self-defense, because fundamentally, she is like so many people who pretend bad things don’t happen. “People connect with the fact that I’m real and that I’m like them.”

It was less than three months after Shannon died that the World Trade Center was attacked. Erin would have been there, as that’s where she temped for Miramax Films, but instead was two miles across town picking up a box of Girls Fight Back t-shirts.

She reflects: “That’s how it’s been since the inception of GFB. An angel parts the seas, keeping the violence close enough to be a reminder that bad things are happening, and far enough to protect me from getting swallowed up by it.  Sometimes the darkness creeps in, and just when it gets to be too much, something amazing happens. A big sponsor emerges or an incredible success story lands in my inbox. Then I move forward another day. This has been my path, and Shannon’s mom always tells me, ‘Shannon hired you for this job.’  I believe she is right. I have always been close enough, yet far enough…”

Erin recalls learning the song “This Little Light of Mine” as a child and its message “to not let the evil in this world blow out our candles.” She likens Girls Fight Back to a flashlight, providing the powerful confidence that comes from knowing how to fight back against evil and violence.

For eight years, Erin has traveled the country speaking to over half a million young women at schools, colleges, corporations, brownie troops, religious institutions and sticky floored pubs and taverns. She didn’t have a long-term plan for GFB when it started, but just kept speaking and writing to anyone who would hear the message that women have the power to be safe and deserve to live a fearless existence.

During these years, the organization has taken on an identity and presence of its own and has resulted in the publication of a book, production of a DVD, numerous media appearances, and awards, all in memory of Shannon. It is Erin’s unwavering commitment to not just her friend, but to all women and the people who love them, that continues to propel her forward.

We at MidChix are honored to be benefiting the newly formed Girls Fight Back Foundation at our first birthday party this week. The foundation focuses on providing women’s safety and self-defense training to at-risk women around the world.  We join Erin in exclaiming that now more than ever we need to get fearless, turn on our flashlight and let it shine, shine, shine. We owe it to our kids, our sisters, our mothers and perfect strangers. And we owe it to ourselves.