This story has been updated to correct the school attended by Misty Moore’s daughter, Kendra.
GREENFIELD — Misty Moore knows many women don’t think they can take down an attacker twice their size.
But they can, she said, and she wants them to know how if they should ever need to.
The Greenfield woman has been teaching self-defense classes and selling protective devices since 2018, but she thinks the concept is more important now than ever.
“The climate of the world has changed. I think we all know that from seeing and hearing about the things going on right now, even in our own community,” Moore said last week, in the wake of two separate shootings taking place in Greenfield within a five-day span.
Sexual assaults on college campuses are also on the rise, said Moore, who has a teenage son and daughter. She’s especially vigilant in making sure they know how to be aware and protect themselves.
Moore serves as director of Hancock County Emergency Management, making sure the county is prepared for any type of emergency. She’s also a special deputy with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.
She has taught about 40 self-defense classes since starting her company — I Am Lona — three years ago.
“Lona means ready for battle. Our mission is to teach people to be empowered and confident and able to defend themselves if they ever have to,” Moore said.
She’s taught people from ages 8 to 80, including a lot of mothers and daughters, a group of teens heading off to college and a group of men and women at risk for domestic assault.
Moore works with a team of five who have either law enforcement background or some sort of self-defense experience.
Her husband, Craig Moore, vice principal at New Palestine Junior High School, sometimes acts as the assailant in class scenarios.
The couple’s teenage kids — Drake, 18, and Kendra, 14 — sometimes help out as well.
“My daughter helps show that even the young girls can defend themselves from people twice their size,” Moore said.
Her daughter loves sharing with others the self-defense skills she’s learned.
“It’s great to know that girls my age are learning to protect themselves and can be without fear,” said Kendra, an eighth-grader at New Palestine Junior High School, who feels more confident after having learned self-defense.
“I think I could fight off an attacker with the knowledge I have,” she said. “It’s my hope that all women and girls will get self-defense training so they can protect themselves too.”
Moore said it was her deputy training that taught her the importance of being prepared to protect oneself in any circumstance, no matter your age or gender.
“Before I had the training I didn’t think I’d be able to take somebody down twice my size, or be able to get away and actually protect myself, but now I have 100 percent confidence I can be my own security system. It’s very empowering,” she said.
Even one training class can help you become better prepared in case of an attack, Moore said.
“The thing with training is that if you’re ever attacked, your muscle memory as your adrenaline sets in. Your muscles and your mind will remember things you learned and you’re going to automatically do those things in response to a situation, whereas if you haven’t trained or even talked about it, you’re going to freeze,” she said, adding that it’s never too early or late to learn.
Moore did a self-defense demonstration for a group of women 65 and older last month, through the Women’s Health and Wellness organization run by Kit Paternoster of Greenfield.
Paternoster said the class helped teach her and fellow members important skills, like always being aware of their surroundings, as well as maneuvers to evade an attack.
“I think it gave the women a sense of confidence and sense of relief that they now had some means of being able to protect themselves, that they’re not completely vulnerable,” she said.
“Given the fact these women are older, and some use canes and walkers, Misty taught us things we can do to make ourselves safer.”
While physical assaults were typically thought of happening to mostly women, Moore said the increasing number of road rage incidents and other violent encounters making headlines make it important for men to learn to protect themselves too.
“Now there’s more and more hostility and frustration among the entire population, so we’re finding an increasing number of men wanting to learn about self protection,” she said.
