Girls onthe Run

[Edward Favre]

Girls on the Run, a program now in its third year in the district, is helping many of our elementary and middle school girls learn to build strong and healthy lives physically, socially and emotionally. This weekend, they will test how far they've come with a regionwide Girls on the Run 5K.

The Girls on the Run program, established 16 years ago, made its debut in the district in 2011 with two schools (Emerson and Harding). Horace Mann joined ranks this year, bringing the total number of school participating to six. Garfield Middle School, and Grant and Lincoln elementaries started their programs last school year. The program is called Girls on Track at the middle school level.

The program’s mission is to educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living. Twice a week for 10 weeks, the girls get together for an hour and spend the first half hour talking about issues that affect young and adolescent girls such as bullying, peer pressure and body images and the media, etc. The advisers then extend the lesson through a half-hour of running, designed to build confidence in the young girls as they get stronger each week.

The program culminates with a celebratory 5K (3.1 miles) race that brings Girls on the Run clubs from all over Northeast Ohio together. This year, that race will be held on May 19 in Akron.

The reputation of the program’s success within the district has grown so that when Horace Mann decided to start its Girls on the Run program, they had such a great response the school received permission from GOTR to field two teams of 12 rather than just one.

“The girls at Horace Mann have shown a tremendous amount of personal growth in the 10 short weeks that they have participated in the program,” said Horace Mann coach Nicole Long. “Not only are they running more and accomplishing their goals physically but they are also learning how to develop a healthy self-image. Through the GOTR curriculum we are instilling in our girls that they are capable, strong and beautiful and that they have the power to make positive choices physically, socially and mentally.”

No doubt, that sense of accomplishment is felt at all the Girls on the Run/Girls on Track schools in the district.