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Healthy bodies, minds, and hearts by Sarah Nixon
The concept behind Fit Girls stems from the powerful and rewarding experience I have had running the Boston Marathon as part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. Our team raised millions of dollars for cancer research.
Setting goals, working together as a team, and staying fit build confidence and self-esteem for runners/walkers of ALL ages! My goal in developing Fit Girls was to give pre-adolescent girls the opportunity to have this positivie experience.
Fit Girls is a six-week running and walking/reading/fundraising program. We meet 2 days a week for one hour. Our approach is non-competitive in that each girl is encouraged to find a pace that is right for them. EVERYONE who participates is a winner!
Each workout begins with a "great book of the day" which typically features a female protagonist who is smart, strong and bold! While there is no required reading, part of our training log is keeping a record of the books we read. The children are able to borrow any books from the Fit Lit collection I have created.
Our non-competitive running/walking workouts are designed to gradually build endurance with a final goal of participating in a 5k road race - this is REALLY exciting for the kids, and we host a "practice 5k" as one of our final workouts to build confidence that they can complete the 3.1 mile distance at a comfortable pace.
The final piece of Fit Girls is community outreach: Fit Girls raise funds for First Book firstbook.org, a national nonprofit literacy organization that provides children in low-income communities the opportunity to own and read their first new books. Fit Girls support of First Book reinforces that growing up healthy means growing up with great books. The girls are provided with fundraising packets and each girl sits down with her family and makes a goal that is RIGHT FOR THEM. It might be $1, $10 or $100. The important fact is that even our smallest efforts add up to make a BIG difference in making the world a better place.
The Medfield Fit Girls team typically raise $1,500 for First Book each season!!!
Sarah Nixon's e-mail is saggybeach@aol.com.
Visit Fit Girls at fitgirls.org
Contact Carol Goodrow, KidsRunning.Com Editor at rwedit@rodale.com
