Running Program Instills Confidence In Strongsville Girls

STRONGSVILLE, OH — Girls on the Run, an after-school program for girls in grades 3-8, is now open in Strongsville. The 10-week teaches life skills and culminates in a 5K run for participants. The program will be offered at Chapman, Kinsner and Muraski Elementary Schools and will be open to students in grades 3-5.

This is the first year the Girls on the Run program has come to Strongsville. Registration is currently open and a spokesperson for the group said there are still openings for the Chapman and Muraski teams.

"Parents, community members and school staff usually reach out about wanting to offer the program at their school and we work with them to recruit volunteer coaches to deliver the program. Coaches are trained to deliver impactful life lessons to the girls twice a week after school," said Erin Matthews, a spokesperson for Girls on the Run.

The program is currently held at schools in Cuyahoga, Lorain, Medina, Portage, Summit and Lake counties. (To stay up to date on local stories, subscribe to the Patch Strongsville newsletter. As news breaks and the story develops, you will be the first to receive updates from Patch.)

In a flyer for the program, the group notes that self-confidence begins to drop for girls at the age of 9. Bullying begins to increase among girls between the ages of 10 and 13, while physical activity begins to drop at the same time. It can be a disastrous confluence of events for young girls.

The Girls on the Run group claims that 85 percent of participants in the program see an increase in self-confidence. Girls who were not physically active at the beginning of the program will increase their physical output by as much as 40 percent.

For more information, or to register for the program, click here.

Photo from Pixabay