Students at North Judson-San Pierre Elementary School have been learning self-confidence through running. Girls on the Run is a 10-week program for girls in grades three through five.
Coach Sharon Field told the school board Tuesday that N.J.-S.P. is the first school in Starke County to take part in this nationwide program. “This is a program aimed to inspire girls to recognize their inner strength and celebrate what makes them so special and unique,” she said. “The coaches go through training. We have a research-based curriculum in which we have dynamic discussions, and we focus on social and life skills, as well as different activities and running activities.”
She said the program is designed specifically for girls because they face different pressures, compared to boys. “Studies show that adolescent girls, their confidence drops twice as much as boys do when they’re adolescents,” Field explained. “Friendships become more complicated and challenging. Girls’ perception of their academic ability declines, and their likelihood for anxiety and depression increases, as well as participation in physical activity plummets. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and this is why we’re reaching out to girls this age.”
The program will wrap up tomorrow with a 5K run in Chesterton. Field said it represents a huge accomplishment for the participants. “We were running one or two laps, and they thought, ‘Oh my gosh, you want me to do 13?’ And they’ve done it. They’ve done it at our practice 5K,” Field said. “This is something that they didn’t think they could do, and you know what? Most people probably have never ran three miles in their lives before. So they’re accomplishing something that many other people have never done, and this is a life lesson that they can use in other aspects of their life, as far as accomplishing goals that they didn’t think possible.”
Field added that transportation to the run, as well as some other costs, were covered by a $500 grant from the Starke County Community Foundation. She said the registration fee for Girls on the Run is based on what families can afford, and no one is ever turn away because her family can’t pay.
During Tuesday’s school board meeting, two of the participants reported making new friends through the program. Field says the coaches are already planning for next year.
