Girls on the Run

Saturday morning our family rose at 5 a.m. to journey downtown and cheer on our "girl" while she ran a 5k with her Jackson Park Girls on the Run team and 8,000 other people.

Girls on the Run St Louis is a non-profit prevention program that encourages preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running.

The 20-lesson Girls on the Run curriculum combines training for a 5k (3.1 miles) running event with lessons that inspire girls to become independent thinkers, enhance their problem solving skills and make healthy decisions.  All of this is accomplished through an active collaboration with girls and their parents, schools, volunteers, staff and the community.

At Jackson Park we are fortunate to have Nancy Mozier and Peggy Stein as the teacher coaches and Vanessa Schrader and Amanda Elliott as our volunteer coaches. To their credit, there were a number of other teachers that assisted along the way.

Over ten weeks the girls improved their teamwork, respect for one another and self-esteem. I especially loved the day my daughter came home and told me how she and another girl had become friends through GOTR when previously they thought they had reasons to dislike one another.

But race day isn't just for the girls - it's a family affair. Mothers, brothers, dads, sisters, aunts, and uncles and grandparents too, all converge on downtown St. Louis to run, watch, and cheer on the runners to the finish line.

What a sense of accomplishment for these girls to finish a 5k race with the excitement of 8,000 other runners. Our girl is moving to middle school next year. While she may miss some of her GOTR JP teammates, she'll be joining others at Girls on Track at Brittany Woods Middle School.

To see more stories on U. City schools visit: http://sayyestoucityschools.blogspot.com