Girls on the Run Memphis helps girls in the 901 and across Shelby County recognize their potential and rise above limiting gender expectations. Although ‘run’ is in our organization's name, the impact our program has on girls is soooo much bigger than running. GOTR girls are able to learn and grow their confidence through physical activity of any kind in our practices while being supported and motivated by trained volunteer coaches.
GOTR Memphis is privileged to announce three new sites that have started this spring: St. Mary’s Episcopal School, LaGrange-Moscow Elementary, and Freedom Prep Millbranch. How exciting! With each new site, more girls will be a part of the program and–more importantly–our GOTR family.
The first new site we want to highlight is St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s mascot is the Turkey; therefore, the only possible team name the girls could decide on was the Gobble Gobble GOTR Girls. We love it!
St. Mary’s is run by head coach, Karen Ullman. Coach Karen has been super involved with GOTR since its inception in 2018, with her children also participating in the program and eventually serving as junior coaches. Coach Karen has primarily volunteered with our 5K events, but she has now taken on the role of head coach. Coach Karen stated, “It’s a joy to watch them light up and see they can do it and to see the discussions arise because of the lessons.”
When asked why she wanted to start a new site, Coach Karen responded that St. Mary’s and Girls on the Run both value many of the same qualities. Character traits such as respect, honesty, and confidence are all weaved into the GOTR curriculum and the St. Mary’s principles, making it a no-brainer to start a new site there. Coach Karen believes, “Girls always have something to learn, and we always have something to teach.”
All the girls at SMS are, “delighted and excited to run every single practice.” This is what we strive for: for every girl to be positive, supported, and cared for at each session.
St. Mary's is currently teaching the Hello, Superstar! curriculum, and the lessons are going amazingly. The girls have just been introduced to the concept of “happy pace” and are trying to figure out their individual comfortable speeds–in running and in life. The girls are really enjoying learning new things and getting to know one another and the coaches. All the coaches are explaining to the girls that they are becoming more of a team with each practice, encouraging them all to become a kind of family by the end.
Coach Karen wanted to highlight why it’s important to have a site or to start a site from scratch. “It’s important to have friends, strangers even, lift each other up, and this program gives the girls the tools and language to be able to do that,” she said. “It is really, truly a positive after school activity that everyone looks forward to.”
Next, we are super excited to introduce our new site at LaGrange-Moscow Elementary, facilitated by head coach Arcinko Smith. This is Coach Arcinko’s first year with Girls on the Run, and she has been a great addition to our GOTR family. Coach Arcinko, who is also the Principal of LMES, really wanted to start a site at LaGrange-Moscow because she wanted to give girls an opportunity to be involved with an after school program like ours. Arcinko said, “Girls on the Run was the perfect storm to provide social, and emotional work for young girls. Being healthy, and staying healthy, has always been super important to me, and I want to pass that importance down to the next generation.”
I asked her how the site was going in its first few weeks, and she responded cheerfully, “The program is going fabulously well. We started off with minimal interest in the program because it was new…Now we are in the lottery because we have the maximum number of 16 girls enrolled, fully enrolled. 100% of our donations have been paid by our sponsors who include community members, and teachers.” LaGrange-Moscow has definitely hit the jackpot, especially as a first year site!
Coach Arcinko believes, “Girls on the Run is a benefit to the entire district. The more programs we can get in place to positively push our young scholars in a positive direction, the better.”
LaGrange-Moscow is the first school in the entire Fayette County public school system to start a GOTR team. She said that the GOTR program at LaGrange-Moscow will be the start up, to see if the other three elementary schools in the district will start a Girls on the Run program in the future. The future is bright at LaGrange-Moscow and hopefully for the entirety Fayette County in years to come.
The last new spring site to introduce is Freedom Preparatory Academy Whitehaven at Millbranch. FPA Millbranch was championed by FPA Charter Schools Program Manager Auna Ingram, who has been part of the GOTR family for years! GOTR Memphis has another site at Freedom Prep Brownlee Middle School that has been thriving for multiple seasons now.
She said, “Collaborating with GOTR has been a life changing experience! I met [GOTR Executive Director] Joanna in 2021, and five minutes into our conversation, I was moved to tears and all smiles because everything she shared about the program was EXACTLY what our girls needed.”
Coach Auna knew there was and is a need for more programs like GOTR and saw this season as a great opportunity to start another site in order to impact as many girls as possible, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Coach Auna said:
“Re-Imagining Schools after the pandemic presented us with a great opportunity to take what we learned during that period of time and transform the way we support our students and adults for the better. Incorporating SEL (social and emotional learning) into our daily routines and rituals allowed us to anchor our work in student belonging and connectedness, relationships, adult resilience and well-being - as well as take a deeper look at our systems to create universal and tiered supports across academics and SEL. We were in a moment that called into focus who we are, how we take collective action to create positive change, and how we connect to one another. To impact our schools and communities, we had to start with ourselves. By committing to SEL, we were able to promote healthy identity development and belonging for all young people within and across social categories. What we learned from the pandemic is that taking care of our social-emotional well-being was imperative.”
Coach Auna wanted to expand GOTR to the Freedom Prep elementary schools to ensure this program was reaching as many girls as possible. She said, “We started GOTR at our Middle School campus, which was a game changer. Witnessing the individual growth and development of our girls and cheering them on at the 5K was a mind blowing experience…By integrating GOTR into our schools, we offer a comprehensive program that complements our educational objectives, fostering empowered, confident, and well-rounded students.”
A few reasons Coach Auna listed as to why Girls on the Run is so beneficial for young girls include: its alignment with Freedom-Prep’s mission, development of life-skills, promotion of social-emotional competence and whole-body well being, and empowerment and confidence building. Implementing Girls on the Run at Freedom Prep Millbranch offers its scholars a supplement to their empowering education and ensures that students are inspired and recognize their abilities.
The support Girls on the Run has is through the roof! Everyone who is a part of this organization–whether that be as a coach, junior coach, participant, team manager, caregiver, or site liaison–impacts the program so graciously and continuously throughout each season. Girls on the Run is an epic way for the next generation of women leaders to learn critical life skills, increase their physical activity, and ultimately connect with other future change makers their age.
For more information about Girls on the Run or starting a site go to: https://www.gotrmemphis.org/start-team.