The day Erin Weed, an Eastern alumna, found out about the murder of her sorority sister and close friend, Shannon McNamara, her life was forever changed.

She ran to find her journal that all her sisters had written in before she graduated. She opened it to McNamara’s page and read, “Weed, I will never forget you.”

“It was that moment that I decided I would spend the rest of my life not forgetting her,” Weed said.

Weed captivated the more than 300 women who filled the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union’s Grand Ballroom on Tuesday evening with the story about McNamara and how it led her to start her self-defense program, Girls Fight Back.

The presentation was mainly sponsored by Sigma Pi to bring a “higher sense of confidence and awareness, as well as to take home some extremely useful resources,” said Sigma Pi President Jason Zientarski.

Other Eastern organizations and Charleston business helped sponsor the event by donating money.

During a campfire Weed and about 40 of her sorority sisters had after learning about McNamara’s murder, they found themselves talking about what freaks them out, such as when their roommates left for the weekend or leaving their internships late at night.

“How free are we if we’re afraid to take showers?” Weed asked.

She knew she had to do something. It wasn’t until during the trial when Weed saw McNamara’s murderer, Anthony Mertz, wink at Shannon’s dad.

“That day I saw evil,” Weed said. “That’s when I started to really understand violence and the terrible things people can do.”

Her techniques are “really simple and very empowering.”

Weed has three different areas she covered that she felt the women in the room need to know: trust intuition, be a bad victim and learn to fight.

She said there are ways to lessen the chances of becoming a victim like using good body language and realizing “when you need to fight or when you need to run.”

She advises to make sure all windows and doors are locked and secure at home. When the cable or electric company comes to the door, women should ask for a badge number or call their landlord for confirmation.

She told the audience the number one date rape drug usually isn’t slipped in a drink but is rather the alcohol itself.

“Go out with your girlfriends and go home with your girlfriends,” Weed said.

After explaining how to avoid situations of being attacked, it was time to teach the women “how to open a can of whoop-ass.”

“Women don’t fight with strength like men do. Women fight with strategy,” she said.

Weed used the situation of a woman getting her keys to open her door, and she sees an unfamiliar male out of the corner of her eye.

The first step in her defense is to say, “Stop. Leave me alone. I don’t want any problems,” which she had the audience repeat.

Next, she showed the women how to take the palm of their hand and thrust it up into the attackers chin. This would cause him to bleed along with affecting his breathing and sight.

Lastly, she showed the women different techniques to harm the attacker such as the knee to the groin.

She ended her presentation by showing the women how to use everyday objects such as a hairbrush, cell phone and a high heel on an attacker and where to use it.

“Some people are artists. Some are musicians,” Weed said. “I can make a weapon out of any household object.”

The audience was very pleased with the presentation, giving Weed a standing ovation at the end.

“She was very personable and got us involved,” said sophomore elementary education major Christine Howe. “I now know to say something first to an attacker.”