well during this back-to-school time
kids are often getting back in routine
with some extra curricular activities
and right here in Central Florida
there is one program that helps girls
race to reach their full potential here
now to talk about girls on the run
central Florida is Karen Allen the
executive director thanks for being here
Karen and girls only run actually
started in 1996 in Charlotte North
Carolina with just 13 girls but now it's
really blown up it hazards yes and has
grown
we're 20 years out of Charlotte North
Carolina and we're on our tenth
anniversary this year here in Central
Florida and we served 1,400 girls last
year and this is about so much more than
running I mean I have to admit that I
thought it was basically a running club
but running is just one part of this
right so we're actually a positive youth
development organization so we're
teaching life skills to the girls but we
use running and running games as the
physical activity component so we want
them to make healthy choices and have
more physical activity so we use running
but if at the end of the day they choose
to swim or do with some other healthy
activity that's fine with us too do you
think that's extra important right now
people you know students are on their
devices and there can be a lot of
negative interaction among students
especially girls in this age group so
this is important absolutely so we spend
a lot of time teaching the girls how to
be their best selves first to make
intentional decisions and make good
choices
choose good friends and then we also
spend time telling them how to stand up
for each other so we want them to have
those relationships with each other in
the community and then they take what
they learned and they give back so it's
really kind of all-encompassing gets
them moving gets them happy joyful
healthy confident alright so how can
people get their daughters involved in
this so we are in about a hundred
different school or community sites each
year and anybody who wants to put on the
program we can bring it to that school
so the school just goes to us fills out
an application and we'll take care of
the rest we provide everything for the
schools for the parents and the girls
once we've approved a school we're right
in the middle of our registration right
now so if you go to our website you can
see the list of schools you just click
on register now and sign up your girl so
overall it's been a it's a positive
atmosphere you know a lot of girls at
this age are body conscious
and don't know how they measure up
compared to other girls other women what
would you tell a parents who are maybe
on the fence of maybe this is a good
thing for my daughter
well absolutely so you know girls are
pretty confident up until about age 9
and that's when we start seeing the
changes they start saying things to her
like you're really good at math for a
girl but we want to encourage her that
you're just really good at math and so a
lot of the lessons that we're doing is
all about those life skills to be
confident to know that she can do
whatever she wants to do we want to
empower her to like know her potential
know that it's unlimited she can do
whatever she wants to do and there are
enough branches around town to find one
absolutely appeal to your child yep we
are in Orange Lake Seminole Osceola and
just expanded into Brevard County so we
have sites throughout all of Central
Florida if we're not at your child's
school call your school let them know
they want the program we can bring it
there it helps them reach some of their
as a goal so usually if a school is
aware of us they want to have our
program and you mentioned teaching
confidence I mean you know my daughter
is eight and you already here you know
kids looking at other girls and Candice
talking about kind of how you look in
comparison and there's a research that
shows you know physical activity and
stuff like this helps you kind of get
out of that habit comparing yourselves
to other it's just competing with
yourself absolutely so we talk we're not
a competitive running program we're
really kind of just teaching yourself to
first accept yourself who you are find
your star power let that shine and then
we talk about goal setting and
accomplishing those goals through
competence and through practice so you
work to the goals so one of the first
things we do is set a goal to run a 5k
so over the 10 weeks they work on that
on their stamina they work on their pace
and it's all done in a fun the girls in
the run is so much fun way and then at
the end of the ten weeks we bring all
the sites together and we have one big
giant 5k but it's non-competitive it's
about the girl learning to complete the
goals and accomplish something on her
own
so she can walk run skip that's up to
her we just wanted to finish and that's
a life skill setting goals and really
just you know finding your own star
power that's something that will serve
these girls their entire lives
absolutely we want strong girls to grow
up into strong women so these girls not
only learn how to form relationships
young then we grow up into women who
have a good strong relationship
I couldn't love it more I know I love
that beautiful work Thank You Karen it's
a lot of fun thank you for inviting me
thank you for being here