Self-Defense Class Benefits Women

BENTONVILLE — Alice Eastwood and Melissa Loughead Anderson are proud graduates of the Bentonville Police Department’s women’s selfdefense class.

Eastwood took the class last fall after her son was born because she realized how vulnerable she was while putting the child in his car seat. Anderson opted to take the class in 2006 after her husband was deployed overseas.

“The need to be more aware was heightened for us,” Anderson said.

The decision to take the class was easy and one theywished they had made earlier, both said.

“I really look at it as a skill,” Eastwood said. “I actually wish I had the opportunity as a teenager to take (the class) because then I would have had those skills throughout my life.”

Eastwood and Anderson saw a chance to make a diff erence in the free class when they saw how tattered some of the equipment was.

The two, both managers at Walmart, helped to get a $1,000 donation for the Bentonville Police Department through Walmart’s Community Grant Program.

The money will be used to purchase new equipment, Police Chief James Allen said.The department has to replace several hundred dollars worth of equipment after it’s used for a couple of classes.

The free self-defense classes given by the department began in 2000. More than 1,500 women have taken the class and graduated, Allen said.

“The classes are important because they set a mindset that safety is important and things can happen,” Allen said.

The class teaches women the importance of situational awareness and how to recognize and use their own strengths and weaknesses, Allen said.

Mayor Bob McCaslin praised the Police Department’s eff orts to provide the class.

“We’re trying to create a safe environment in Bentonville,” McCaslin said. “It is a whole lot easier to create a safe environment than it is to react to crime.”