chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035
CHAPEL HILL -- In a society saturated with media messages depicting the ideal female figure, Girls on the Run, a nonprofit program, seeks to encourage pre-teen girls to fight these stereotypes and develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running.
A 12-week after-school prevention program with a chapter in the Triangle area, Girls on the Run teaches girls ages 8-13 about physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual well-being.
"We use running and walking and this whole idea of healthy living and taking care of your body and your soul, taking care of your whole person," said Kelly Hurter, executive director of Girls on the Run in the Triangle area. "We use this whole idea of living this healthy lifestyle as a way to teach girls these important lessons.
Girls on the Run International is the parent organization of more than 150 Girls on the Run programs across the U.S. and Canada. The Triangle area chapter, which started in Chapel Hill, serves Durham, Orange and Wake counties and will celebrate its 10-year anniversary in 2010.
The program now serves more than 600 girls in 25 locations and has more than 115 volunteer coaches, Hurter said.
Because the program's founder, Molly Barker, graduated from UNC, Girls on the Run holds a special connection with the university, and many coaches are students there. Partially because of this connection, UNC Sport Club chose Girls on the Run as the charity for its annual Race for a Reason on Oct. 18.
But mostly Sport Club chose the group because of Girls on the Run's mission to promote healthy living and self-esteem through running.
"They really focus on fostering an active lifestyle and healthy living and a positive body image in young girls, which I think is really important in a nation that struggles with obesity and heart disease and body image," said Rob Sayre-McCord, Sport Club intern.
Girls on the Run brings girls of all backgrounds together to address self-image issues that they will face when entering middle school, such as bullying, the media and social awareness. One lesson compares words to toothpaste: once they come out of the tube, they can't go back in.
As serious as some of the topics are, Hurter said the program is written for the girls' age level. The coaches address issues such as obeying parents or a babysitter who brings out an R-rated movie.
"I find the girls want to talk about stuff," she said. "They want to have these conversations."
The activity-filled curriculum also helps to lighten the mood. Each session, the girls constantly move their bodies in various activities, between which the coaches bring them together for a processing time.
"This is such an important aspect of it, all the lessons," said Jessy O'Connell, a junior business major at UNC who participated in Girls on the Run as a fourth-grader and now volunteers as a coach. "But it's also supposed to be fun. There's plenty of times when we're just joking around, just being kids."
O'Connell said she didn't quite understand the full impact of the issues presented until afterwards. But the messages stuck with her all the same.
"It was a good lesson, being a leader and being confident in your own ability," she said. "In fourth grade, running your first 5K is a big deal."
The lessons that O'Connell subconsciously gleaned from her excitement at running form the crux of the Girls on the Run program. The coaches focus particularly on issues the girls will face in middle school.
"Middle school is the time in a girl's life when she's trying to fit in, and there's a certain way to act when they're in the cool crowd," Hurter said. "We're trying to reach them before they get to that part of their life, before they get to that crossroads where they're asked to do things that are uncomfortable for them."
In these situations, Hurter said she hopes that the girls will have built enough self-esteem to make healthy decisions.
"Girls on the Run will enable them and give them the tools to live a healthy lifestyle as they go forward and as they grow," she said. "We're really trying to prepare them and to set them up for success."
