COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Feb. 13, 2008) — “Stayin’ Alive on Spring Break” is the topic of a presentation that will be given at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 19, in Tennessee Tech University’s Derryberry Hall Auditorium.

The presenter of this Center Stage event will be Erin Weed, founder of the Girls Fight Back violence prevention seminar.

Weed was inspired to create the innovative seminar — which is also presented at high schools, corporations and women’s groups nationwide — after the 2001 murder of Shannon McNamara, her friend and sorority sister at Eastern Illinois University.

McNamara was killed when a 26-year-old male college student who lived across the street from her broke into her college apartment where she was sleeping.

Because she fought back against him, enough physical evidence was provided to lead police to her killer, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2003 and later sentenced to the death penalty. He is now awaiting execution on the Illinois Death Row.

After McNamara’s death, Weed immersed herself in training with the best violence prevention experts and self-defense trainers in the world, in order to learn all that she could about personal safety.

She uses humor and realism to teach college-age men and women about seemingly innocent situations that can have devastating consequences during a college student’s spring vacation.

Although the presentation is free and open to the public, it is not recommended for children under the age of 12 because violence and sexual assault will be openly discussed.

--Tracey Hackett
This information posted 14 Februrary 2008