Charlotte Heffelmire is a Black Belt from Vienna, a McLean High School senior who is a classical musician and a philanthropist. She hopes to attend a military academy and study to become a doctor. This past summer, she completed a training program at the F.B.I. - "Future Agents in Training" - at F.B.I. facilities in D.C. and Quantico.
All that and she’s just 17 years old.
On Sunday, Nov. 16, Heffelmire is conducting a free four-hour “safety” workshop for teens at the Vienna Community Center, 1 to 5 p.m. The workshop targets 13 to 19 year-old-girls.
“I know how to protect myself,” said Heffelmire. “All women should take a self-defense class. But, then, I started to think that most teenagers don’t listen to adults that much. I thought, ‘why not have a class written from the perspective of a teenager and taught by a teenager rather than an adult?’”
Heffelmire’s workshop plans began in earnest in April with talks with Vienna Parks and Recreation staff and with the Vienna Police Department who assessed Heffelmire’s workshop curriculum and worked with her to develop effective strategies and tactics for self-defense.
At her teen safety workshop, Heffelmire will demonstrate avoidance strategies as well as escape tactics. She brings along her pink pepper-mace for show-and-tell and each participant receives a free spray can courtesy of Heffelmire’s child-centered charity, Winds of Change.
The ABCs of safety include avoidance, bearing, and caution and awareness of surroundings. If A, B and C do not work, there’s “D” for defense, how to best-defend yourself, from neck strikes to eye or ear attacks.
“Radiate confidence,” said Hefflemire. “Don’t look vulnerable.
“If you are attacked, do not be embarrassed by it. It’s not your fault. Tell everyone, your parents, hospital, police, school and counselors about it.”
For a few years, Heffelmire has fundraised on behalf of Winds of Change, a nonprofit she founded that focuses on the welfare of North Korean children. Heffelmire has tied money to helium balloons near the DMZ in Korea. She has earned money for her charity by shoveling snow off driveways and has done a bit of modeling.
Heffelmire has incorporated some of her F.B.I. training tactics to her workshop, along with the techniques she has mastered from personal training and experience in the martial arts.
“Everyone needs self-defense tactics,” said Heffelmire. This course, Heffelmire hopes, teaches a teenager how to deal with an attempted assault.
If you are a victim, it was your attacker’s crime, not yours for being in the wrong place or time, said Heffelmire.
“Be very vocal about what happened to you. Be persistent. Get someone to listen to you so the attacker doesn’t get away with it and do it again and again.”
To learn more about registration for Heffelmire’s teen-safety workshop, call 703-255-6360.
— Donna Manz