Back in the Saddle

I am happily co-coaching Girls On The Run at Nashville’s first charter school, Smithson Craighead Academy. We join a host of committed school partners (Fifty Forward, Pencil Foundation, Hospital Corporation of America) invested in the academic and social success of these children. Our program is sponsored by a grant from the New Balance Foundation, and New Balance has also provided each girl with a new pair of running shoes. The students are economically disadvantaged (99.1% participate in free/reduced school lunch), but certainly not under served. Passionately dedicated and engaged educators (even Principal Janelle Glover has been known to suit up and join Girls on the Run practice) are providing a loving, creative and productive learning environment, encouraging interaction among teachers and staff, student’s families and the community.

We call ourselves TEAM PINK! Twelve 3rd and 4th grade girls are as beautiful as their names: Micah, Ananai, Charlisha, Camille, Keiana, Tiara, Amia, Manishe, Olivia, Mikayah, Quantasia and Kanaka. My partners in crime (fellow coaches and volunteers) include tall pretty Dawn, a retired parole officer and photographer extraordinaire; Acrobatic Ali, upon whose technical skills as well as high spirits we will rely; fashionable Tara, who the girls rightfully say looks like a Barbie doll; TSU about-to-graduate nursing student Scharonda; new mom Amanda, who drives from Clarksville, and Vanderbilt University students Michelle, Whitney and Lauren. We’re having a blast delivering self-esteem enhancing GOTR experiential learning lessons as the girls learn to love running, themselves, each other and US! Sharing their experience, we’re all in this together. As Micah says, “there is no “i” in “team”!

Our next curricula lesson has us Reflecting on Gratitude. We at Girls on the Run Nashville certainly have much to be grateful for, but in the interest of those who say my blogs are too long, that will be the subject of another blog.

XXOO
Jennifer

Jennifer Kimball, Girls on the Run Nashville Council Director, was reading Runner’s World one day when she saw a photo of Girls on the Run founder Molly Barker surrounded by a sea of young girls, all jumping in the air with huge grins on their faces and thought to herself, “I want to do that.” And, with the help of many other interested women (and a few good men), she did. In the fall of 2007 Girls on the Run Nashville began with 15 girls at Percy Priest Elementary and now Jennifer is the one surrounded by the happy faces of 84 girls participating in seven Spring 2010 programs in Davidson and Williamson counties. Jennifer always has a smile for the girls who she says both surprise, inspire her and make her laugh. Her passion, energy, care, determination and love for the girls and the program is truly contagious.