Most kids get home from school, click on the TV and settle into the couch until dinner time. But girls all across the country are busting out their sneakers and hitting the pavement.
Ten year old Brooke is part of Girls on the Run. It’s her third year in the program and she says she hopes to never stop running. The program is centered around teaching girls to be physically active and increasing self-esteem through anti-bullying and leadership lessons.
Each day after school they huddle up with their teammates and coaches (volunteers from the high school and parents), they have a lesson and then play games to help build their endurance.
The 10-12 week program culminates each year with a 5K run. Brooke says that crossing the finish line is the best part of Girls on the Run because she realizes that all of her hard work has paid off. She says she loves to look to her right and left and see her friends from school that have trained with her for weeks.
Brooke’s mom is her coach and she loves the program because it helps keep Brooke active but also because it helps with Brooke’s ADHD. She says, “Meds seem to work for her but definitely when she’s running I can see a huge difference because she seems to mellow a little bit more. I think it’s because of the exercise and she has that time where she stops and thinks about things she wants to think about while she’s running rather than just racing around through her entire day.”
Brooke says it’s easy for her to focus when she’s running, so she takes the tools she’s learned from Girls on the Run and uses them in the classroom.
If you want to volunteer or get more information about Girls on the Run, visit their website: http://www.girlsontherun.org/
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