Free pepper spray training helps people be confident in their self-defense items

BREMERTON — When it comes to self-defense, education is one of the most important aspects, according to Chanel Caulfield, an independent damsel pro for Damsel in Defense.

Damsel in Defense is a direct-sales company whose mission is to “educate, equip and empower women to protect themselves and their families,” Caulfield said. She joined the company about a year and a half ago, and decided this year to focus on community outreach and education.

“The more I teach people, the more I realize a lot of women have pepper sprays and they don’t know how to use them,” Caulfield said. “That’s a concern of mine.

She added, “My main concern is making sure that women are confident in what they’re carrying. It doesn’t do any good to carry something to protect yourself but not know how to use it.”

To that end, Caulfield will host a pepper spray training session at 5 p.m. April 15 at Evergreen Park in Bremerton. The event is free and anyone can attend.

“It’s really just a nice, quick, and hopefully convenient, event to show them how to use their pepper sprays and find out more information for their specific device,” Caulfield said.

She said the training will include “a review of statistics, an overview of our specific features for Damsel in Defense pepper sprays, how to properly use a pepper spray and some time for questions if people want to know more.”

Participants will have the opportunity to practice, using water-inert practice sprays, which will give them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with how to aim and what sort of resistance there is. Caulfield said she plans to have people with practice targets walk toward the person spraying so they can get a feel for using the spray on a moving target.

“It’s vitally important to make people aware of the products they are carrying,” Caulfield said. “Would you carry a gun without knowing how to use it? I like to use that same mentality of preparedness with any self-defense tool. Everyone should be confident in their choice of defense product and know what to do if they should need to use it.”

The event will include a raffle for a free spray, and an opportunity to purchase Damsel in Defense sprays, which Caulfield said have the highest legal percentage of the active ingredient, Oleoresin Capsicum, at 18 percent. The sprays shoot up to 16 feet and include a UV dye that will stay on the attacker for about a week, regardless of changing clothes and showering, which helps in identification by police.

Caulfield added that should your Damsel in Defense pepper spray be kept as evidence by law enforcement, you just have to provide proof — as well as proof of purchase — and Damsel in Defense will replace the spray for free.

Caulfield said Damsel in Defense is committed to self defense items that can “work with you now and later.”

Caulfield said her training session is open to not just women or past clients, but anyone with an interest, even teenagers (with parental supervision). She said that in Washington, people as young as 14 can carry pepper spray with permission from their parent or guardian, a fact she wants known as well. She said teenagers, with permission, can carry pepper spray to school, which can protect them as they walk to and from bus stops, for example, and could be a tool against abduction or assault.

In an effort to educate the community about that, Caulfield said she and other Damsel pros are working to connect with school districts for educational programs about self defense.

“A lot of our representatives are survivors of domestic abuse, rape, sexual assault,” Caulfield said. “We all have that same passion to make sure that those statistics are lowered, not just for women but for their families, their husbands, their boyfriends, their grandkids, their children.

“I think we need more of that in the world. It’s a dangerous place out there. I don’t know if things are getting worse as time goes on, or if maybe stories are spread more rapidly, but hopefully we can use that dissemination of information to get the word out that you can fight back. Hopefully nothing ever happens, but we like to be proactive about our safety.”

Caulfield provided some additional tips to using pepper spray:

Use your thumb, not your pointer finger, to aim.

Spray in a “Z” or “W” pattern to hit a larger area of an attacker’s face.

Replace pepper spray every year, as potency goes down over time.

After purchasing pepper spray, go outside on a windless day and practice spraying a bush, to familiarize yourself with the feel.

To learn more about Damsel in Defense, go to www.mydamselpro.net/chanelc or www.damselin defense.net. The Facebook event page is available at goo.gl/PZVFWb.

— Michelle Beahm is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. She can be reached at mbeahm@soundpublish ing.com.