How she turned a tragedy into a class that empowers women of Middle Georgia

Paige Slocumb begins every self-defense class with, “I’m the youngest of six children. My sister was 15 when I was born. She was riding her bike on the Silver Comet Trail when a man came out of the woods and raped her and murdered her.”

After saying Silver Comet Trail, she said she gets this feeling in the pit of her stomach before continuing to describe what happened to her sister.

“We literally miss her everyday,” she said.

Slocumb said she relives the death of her sister every time she teaches a self-defense class.

Slocumb said after this tragedy happened to her family in 2006, they started Safe Alone Inc., a non-profit dedicated to helping women feel safe when they are alone.

“When I was thinking about things I could do that would hopefully make a difference, I kept coming back to self-defense and safety,” she said. “While we really aren’t safe when we’re alone all the time, I don’t want you to be scared.”

Slocumb, president of Safe Alone Inc., said although sometimes the odds are hard to overcome, having a plan and preparing yourself is better than doing nothing at all.

“I want you to be empowered and know there are things you can do,” she said. “You take up for yourself. You do what you need to do to get out of the situation no matter what that is.”

Although Slocumb teaches such a serious topic, her students were laughing at her humorous quips at Vineville Baptist Church on Tuesday night.

“Paige does a great job, and she’s very engaging to everybody who comes. It’s something that can reach any age,” said Leigh Halverson, the minister of family life and education at Vineville Baptist.

Penny Smith, who lives with her daughter, said she wanted to come to the class to learn if there were any ways she could make her and her daughter safer.

“I think this class taught me how to better protect myself,” said Penny Smith.

Cynthia Johnson, a traveling nurse, said she stays in a lot of hotels by herself, and she wanted to learn any safety tips that could help her.

“I felt like I learned a lot especially about the noise makers,” she said. “I feel like I could think and have a plan of what to do if I get in an awkward situation.”

Halverson said the class is a great opportunity to share tips with the community about how to be safe.

“We have a great space to do that and want to be a church that’s tending to the needs of the community around us, and safety’s a big piece of that,” Halverson said.

Slocumb said all classes are free, and anyone can schedule a class with her by contacting her through Safe Alone’s Facebook page or website, safealone.org.

Although Slocumb keeps the tone upbeat, she said it never gets any easier talking about her sister, but she said she hopes that she can do something good out of something terrible.

“Teaching this class is good, but it still is talking about my sister and opening that up every single time,” she said. “The bad is it still hurts, and it’s gonna hurt, but the good is people are walking out of here, and they’ve had a good time, and they’ve learned something, and hopefully they’re a little bit safer than when they came in if nothing else.”