Jackson County Girls on the Run serves suburbs like Lee's Summit and Blue Spring, rural areas like Grain Valley and Buckner as well as the urban core in the heart of Kansas City - think VanBrunt and 17th Street and areas like Sugar Creek. This season we've nearly tripled in size going from 33 girls last fall to close to 90 this spring. We've added 3 fully funded sites - thanks to Pave Your Lane, LINK and SoleMates. At the same time, we've been able to maintain our registration fees to $50-$75 for our public sites. Our total out of pocket site per girl is $200, so offering it at an affordable rate means we need help!
I've signed up for SoleMates (the charity running piece of GOTR) this season with two goals in mind. I'll be running Hospital Hill 10K. Last year I completed it in 1:06, this year I want to do it in less than an hour. If you're not familiar with HH, let me just say, the name is NOT deceiving. This race is full of HUGE hills, and if you know me at all, you know I'm a treadmill kind of chick. But I'm up for the challenge - 60 minutes, 10 minute miles, YES I CAN!!!!
My second goal is to raise $1000 for GOTR through SoleMates. http://www.active.com/donate/SoleMates2010/SLea1 Here's the link to my page. You can see how much I've raised, who the biggest funders are and all that fun stuff. I will also be posting awesome stories about the girls and about how your gift of $10 (yep, that's all I'm asking for - 100 people to give $10) is impacting girls in our area.
Last season two women wanted to add a site at their inner city school, and I wasn't sure how we were going to fund the site. Basically they decided to do SoleMates which would cover the cost of their girls' registration fees. I am excited to share with you that they currently have 15 girls signed up for Girls on Track (6-8th grade girls). Here's a blip of how SM/GOTR has made a difference in this girl's life.
"Thinking about the girl who is overweight. . . I am really excited she is involved. She is looking forward to learning about healthy eating too. I think this will be great for her. When we first mentioned the group to her, she asked if she could just be the cheerleader or help coach, because she didn't think she could do the running. So, I'm glad she signed up. And, another chubby girl signed up once she saw this other had signed up. She said, "If she's gonna do it, then I'll do it too." I know GOTR is not a weight-loss program, but if they can see that exercise is feasible and can be fun, as well as eating well, then maybe they will eventually see a change in weight and lifestyle."
What chokes me up about this is that the girl wants to coach or cheer on other girls because she's already told herself she can't. She's already living in that girl box about what a big girl can and can't do. And she signed up anyway. She'll learn over the next 11 weeks what it's taken me most of my life to learn, I can do anything.
More to come!!!! You can donate right now, it's painless and easy - $10. . .and it does directly affect our girls right here in Jackson County!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment