Safety First News
The Streetwise Forum
Safety First has a new radio show called The Streetwise Forum on KLAY 1180AM Listen to archived broadcasts here.
October 3, 2009 Broadcast
October 10, 2009 Broadcast
Newsletters
Safety First has begun publishing a monthly newsletter. If you would like to read past copies or the current copy of our newsletter, please download a copy below.
Announcements
We Have a New School!
Safety First PPS
8307 27th St W
University Place, WA 98446
Master Steve Armstrong Passes Away
Isshinryu Karate Master Steve Armstrong passed away on November 15, 2006. See Isshinryu NW Okinawan Karate Association for some informative links on Sensei Armstrong and Isshinryu Karate.
Safety First has a new website!
If you've visited our site before, you've probably noticed that we've drastically changed our look.
We've also changed our main URL to safetyfirstpps.org, since we've become a non-profit organization.
We hope you like the new look and content. Please contact us if you have any feedback or content that you'd like to see included.
Articles
Turn fear into action, kids learn
by Joseph Montes, The News Tribune, June 8, 2006
Gig Harbor grade-schoolers take a special self-defense class that goes beyond conventional wisdom. They learn hands-on techniques instead.
Self defense for kids is growing up.
Simply telling kids not to talk to strangers isn’t enough, Bill Kortenbach says. In fact, it could be harmful.
Kortenbach is co-owner of Safety First Personal Protection Strategies, a Tacoma nonprofit that teaches children how to spot and deal with potential attackers.
He and his staff of volunteers were invited to Gig Harbor by grade school teachers for three days this week to share the philosophy of using raw emotions as motivation to take action.
“Fear, guilt and anger all get such a bad rap,” Kortenbach said. “It’s what we do with them that can be positive or negative.”
Harbor Heights students learn the importance of ‘Safety First’
by Michelle Rogers-Moore, Peninsula Gateway, June 14,2006
Program gives kids hands-on activities to avoid an assault.
If a predator wants or tries to attack a student from Harbor Heights Elementary School, he or she has chosen the wrong kid. The 600-plus students have been trained in preventing an attack, as well as using physical means to stop an attack.
Volunteers from Safety first Personal Protection Strategies, based out of gig Harbor, spent three days at the school last week engaging students in discussions, lectures, interactive role plays and physical training on how to stay safe in a variety of situations.
“We want to empower kids,” founder, CEO and President Bill Kortenbach said.
A prep course for surviving the worst case scenarios
by Callie White, Peninsula Gateway
Locally held class forces participants to conquer fears
How safe do you feel?
Since Sept. 11, the country has been alerted to a new worst- nightmare scenario and we’ve been inspired by acts of incredible heroism. Now what are we going to do? What is there in Gig Harbor that can help us?
Safety First, a new kind of self defense class, promises to help its students learn to act in the face of fear.
Crystal Brame
by Peninsula Gateway
Bill Kortenbach’s eyes tear up and his lips tighten and tremble. To keep from collapsing into a full cry, he has to pause in telling the story about the day he met Crystal Brame.
“I looked into her eyes and I saw hopelessness,” he said this week. “I could feel her oppression like a lead blanket. She had an incredible heaviness of spirit.”
Kortenbach teaches the one-day personal protection course that Crystal Brame had signed up to take on Sunday, April 27.
But just 17 hours before the training that might have saved her life, her husband, Tacoma Police Chief David Brame, murdered her in front of their two children in the Harbor Plaza parking lot and then committed suicide.
Tacoma Confidential - Did Keeping Secrets Lead to Murder?
48 Hours Mystery / CBS News
Excerpt
"When Crystal left her husband and took the kids with her, friends say she actually had something to look forward to.
But however liberated she may have felt, Crystal could not forget that her husband was still the chief of police, and that he had hurt her in the past.
She decided to do something to protect herself, and talked to Bill Kortenbach, a martial arts instructor who had given her son karate lessons. He also teaches an intense course on personal safety."
Brame ends wife's hopes for a new life
MARTHA MODEEN; The News Tribune / September 16th, 2003 12:01 AM
When the police chief's private life became public, he made good on his threats.
Press Information
If you're a member of the media and would like interviews, pictures, or to attend a Safety First Event, please contact us.