Six fall programs are up and running!

In addition to continuing two GOTR programs at Percy Priest Elementary and one at Guild Elementary in Gallatin, we began Girls on Track at Rucker Stewart in Gallatin and a 5th and 6th grade-only GOTR program at J.T. Moore Middle. And we are absolutely thrilled about our first GOTR/Metropolitan Nashville Parks and Recreation collaboration at East Park Community Center, which is sponsored by a grant from the Nashville Predators Foundation.

I won’t say who (!), but there are those within this organization who accuse me of making my blogs so long that they have to be divided, so I will restrict myself here to telling you about the East Park program.

East Park Community Center is a fabulous facility. The girls meet in the Theatre Room for snacks and are able to walk right out the door to a large grassy field. On cold or rainy days they have access to a state-of-the-art indoor track.

There are 11 3th-5th grade girls from 6 MNPS schools: Lockeland, Julia Green and Percy Priest Elementary (both Percy Priest programs filled with a wait list and we’re not yet at Julia Green, so Olivia and Savannah’s moms carpool to programs twice a week) and Meigs, Head and East Literature Middle schools. To say they have vibrant personalities at East Park is putting it mildly; they have officially usurped M/W Percy Priest girls’ Adorable Heathens title. Savannah is the youngest, and turned 8 the second week of programs. She and Susannah have already run 2 miles without stopping! Gaida was born in Italy and speaks many languages. She is quite a talker and usually has a comment (in English) for everything that goes on at Girls on the Run. After her tremendous effort one day, she earned the Sweat Queen award for also being a good listener!

But talk about positive role models for this program! These girls are lovingly co-coached by East Park Fitness director Misty Adfield (who addresses them as “ladies”) and longtime GOTR Running Buddy Ree Crabtree, who teaches at Nashville State. Among the many practice volunteers are Sherry Shearer, who comes every single day (that’s her back in the photo, with her arms around two of the girls; she IS pretty and has long blonde hair, so Rae says she looks like Dolly Parton), Diane Crozier, a lawyer who drives all the way from Franklin, Stephanie Mitchell, a senior research associate at Children’s National Medical Center, and our own GOTR Board of Directors Secretary Jackie Johnston, children’s publicist for Thomas Nelson.

Not only is Girls on the Run so much fun for the little girls, but our big girls as well. One day when Kennedy wasn’t wearing running clothes, Vanderbilt University assistant coach Reba McCracken told her to “improvise” with what she did have. Kennedy looked at her and said, “Girl, I am in 3rd grade, I don’t know your fancy college words, I know 3rd grade words.” Reba said she had to laugh out loud.

It won’t be long now until their first practice 5k, with Running Buddies: November 12th!
Then all 66 girls participating in Fall programs, their coaches and Running Buddies will end the season at the Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee (PCAT) Jingle Bell 5k December 12th.

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 66 girls participating in Fall 2009 programs. 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.