Craig and Company Fight Back

Craig and Company Fight Back
West Hartford, Connecticut

Questions? Contact the Administrator

Contact:	Stephanie Blozy
Phone:	860.233.8077
Email:	Click here to email the Administrator
Website:	www.fleetfeethartford.com

Registration
A Self-Defense Class for Runners & Walkers Presented by: Fleet Feet Sports, Elite Karate & Krav Maga, Marketing on Demand, 96.5 & Hot Tomatoes Saturday, Novemeber 20 from 1-3pm "The Great Room" at Hot Tomatoes This highly interactive self-defense class will be lead by Richard Kohler, an expert Krav Maga instructor. Krav Maga is a self defense/protection system created for Isareli Commandos and SWAT Teams. It is extremely effective and easy to learn. You will learn how to protect yourself from a variety of attacks including sexual attacks and attacks with weapons and multiple attackers. Richard will teach you how to use Pepper Spray and how your running/walking gear can help you escape. Come dressed in your workout clothes.

11/9 Session at University of Hartford on Personal Safety

I am a West Hartford resident and the grants & programs manager of The Women's Education and Leadership Fund at The University of Hartford. I wanted to draw your attention to a session we are presenting

Personal Safety for Women
Place: Gengras Student Union 335 
Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Time: 12:00-1:00pm
description: Many in our community have been shaken by the recent news of the brutal sexual assault of a jogger in West Hartford. Join University of Hartford Public Safety Sergeant Tiffany Boykin, a WELFund Laura Johnson Initiative for Women Leaders participant, to learn what you need to know to protect yourself. Sergeant Boykin will address how best to protect yourself from assault while jogging, walking and in your daily travels. 

Students, staff, faculty and members of the community are encouraged to participate. Bring along your lunch and your questions and concerns.

I can't guarantee you will find lots of parking on campus at this hour, but I urge you to attend.

More runners and a possible group!

UPDATE: A few more interested runners.

1. I'd love to do a 4-5am group daily or a Sunday group from 5-7 or 6-8 am.....thanks so much!  You guys are  so good to organize this!  ps...if any runners want to train for something cool....we can put together a Ragnor Relay group...200 miles in 24 hours May20-21...team of 12 needed.....sure would be cool to see the neighborhood come back full throttle!  Thanks so much!

2. Another runner who usually runs by herself mid-mornings would like to join a group. She runs in "rebounders," which slows down her pace to a 12-15 min/mile. 

3. (from 11/1 comments) How about another old sloooooow runner (12-15 min/mile) who wants to run at about 7:30.

LOOKS LIKE RUNNERS 2 + 3 here plus the woman from the previous post who would like to run between 7-7:30 have a group!!!  Now, how best to set up a meeting time/place? If you are all comfortable sharing your email address with the others, you can let me know at takebackthemorning@gmail.com and you can email one another.

We've Got a Runner (or two)!

We've got two women so far interested in getting a running group together in the Morley neighborhood. One woman would like to run at 5:30 AM every day (pace of about 10 min miles) and the other woman would like to run between 7-7:30 (usually about 4 miles).

Please let's spread the word and help female runners find one another to form these running groups.

No woman should have to run alone!

Please email takebackthemorning@gmail.com if you're interested in joining/starting a group.

UPDATE: A few more interested runners.
1. I'd love to do a 4-5am group daily or a Sunday group from 5-7 or 6-8 am.....thanks so much!  You guys are  so good to organize this!  ps...if any runners want to train for something cool....we can put together a Ragnor Relay group...200 miles in 24 hours May20-21...team of 12 needed.....sure would be cool to see the neighborhood come back full throttle!  Thanks so much!


2. Another runner who usually runs by herself mid-mornings would like to join a group. She runs in "rebounders," which slows down her pace to a 12-15 min/mile. 


3. (from comments) How about another old sloooooow runner (12-15 min/mile) who wants to run at about 7:30.


LOOKS LIKE RUNNERS 2 + 3 here plus the woman above who would like to run between 7-7:30 have a group!!!  Now, how best to set up a meeting time/place? If you are all comfortable sharing your email address with the others, you can let me know at takebackthemorning@gmail.com and you can email one another. 

News Clips

Here are a couple of news clips from Friday's vigil.

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/hartford_cty/candlelight-vigil-for-sex-assault-victim

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/DNA-From-West-Hartford-Case-Does-Not-Match-East-Coast-Rapes-106326999.html

Run/Walk Scheduling

So, you want to run in the morning, but you're afraid to go out there alone. What to do?? We can either post day/time/meeting place options up here on the website OR you can write to takebackthemorning@gmail.com and we will start a master schedule. If there are existing running groups out there who would like to extend an invitation to others in the community, please let us know either by commenting or leaving an email and we'll add that group to the master schedule.

Thank you again to everyone who is helping us Take Back the Morning! (or daytime or evening)

Day	Time	Place
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who came out this morning to show support in our collective community initiative to "Take Back the Morning." No one has an exact number, but that is less significant than the feeling of solidarity we all felt in gathering together. Thank you to Scott Slifka, Mayor, who also shared his concern about the incident and his appreciation for the people in this town.

Let this be the beginning of something strong. Many women have expressed interest in knowing about meeting times/places for early morning walks or runs. If you are interested in connecting with others to walk or run, please use this blog as a means of coming together.

Women are inherently strong. En masse, well, there is no word to describe how we are because the dictionary might explode. "Strong" is not a sufficient word for who we are as women when we collect around a cause.

Let this tragedy stir each of us to come together and make the necessary changes we need in our community so we can leave a heritage of empowerment to our young people, and not the fear we all felt on Wednesday!

Our Intention

The following is an extract from one of our email threads.

I think  the "intention" is quite simple.

We intend to reclaim our neighborhood as a place of beauty and security for ourselves, our daughters, our friends and our mothers. We intend to replace our feelings of anxiety with feelings of love, support and unity. We intend to express our outrage at the violation that took place in our space by a show of strength, sending the message that violence is not acceptable here. We have a community of incredibly hard working people, many of whom squeeze their exercise regiments into the early morning and we like that we live in a neighborhood that is safe enough to accommodate this. We intend to make these points by taking back our morning.

It would be far more disturbing to live in a community where women are passive and  quietly ignore that a rape took place within yards of our homes and do nothing to address the issue. This community is not a location where the most heinous activities can take place without swift, direct response from the surrounding community, 

PLEASE JOIN US!

RUN & CANDLELIGHT VIGIL 

6:30am Tomorrow – Friday 10/29. 

Meet at Prospect and Fern.  

We will run to Morley School and have a candlelight vigil. 

Come with a friend.

Bring a candle or two.

Tell everyone you know.

NOTHING CAN DETER US

Welcome to our blog -- TAKE BACK THE MORNING - put together by a few West Hartford women who stand undeterred by one creep. Our hearts go out to the woman whose life was changed forever yesterday and to each of us in this community who are all now faced with a new, unexpected and tragic fear...walking/running alone on our streets.

Hopefully, we can use this as a place to share information that will empower us as individuals and as a community.

Please join us in sharing thoughts, ideas, ways to gather and unite so we can be propelled away from fear and into a place where we can all stand empowered and feeling safe once again.