Two years ago, when Nichyria Byrd signed up for Girls on the Run, the 3rd grader wasn’t much of an athlete. For starters, she feared losing her breath from exertion. But by the end of the 12-week program, she’d finished a 3.1-mile race with new confidence, and hardly missed a beat.
“That’s the biggest thing I learned–to try my best, that I can do whatever I want if I put my mind to it,” says Nichyria, now a 10-year-old 5th grader at Ariel Community Academy on the edge of Kenwood and Hyde Park.
Financial pressures have forced many schools to scale back extracurricular activities, particularly physical education classes, even as America’s youth face a worsening obesity epidemic. Girls on the Run is aiming to fill that gap. But the nearly decade-old program is about more than getting young women to run. It challenges them to think critically about the power of their words. It seeks to boost their self-esteem by setting and achieving goals, and encourages them to adopt healthier eating habits –perhaps inspiring their families to do the same.
The story of how Nichyria came to Girls on the Run begins with a teacher, Candice West.
A 33-year-old reading specialist, West spent most of her
teaching career at Ariel. She grew up in the Pill Hill section of the South Side and had become an avid runner. In 2005, after crossing the finish line of a 5K race, she recalls walking around the receiving area, where various organizations had set up booths. One was for Girls on the Run. “I saw the word ‘Girls,'” she recalls, “and I ran over there.”
Girls on the Run arrived in Chicago in 1999 and has established a strong base at several schools, mostly on the North Side and in the suburbs. Its executives were hoping to expand its reach, partly by recruiting volunteers from the South and West Sides.
West began researching the group. Its potential seemed enormous: There are many athletic programs for boys, she figured, but few besides basketball and softball for girls. Plus, she says, “There was nothing that met the social and emotional needs of the girls, as well as the physical needs. This seemed like a great way to start that.”
She approached Lennette Coleman, Ariel’s principal, about bringing the program to the school. It wasn’t a tough sell. Coleman even offered to help pay for students who couldn’t afford the program’s $40 fee.
Next, West set out to recruit participants. She walked from classroom to classroom, pulling girls into the school’s hallways to sell them on Girls on the Run.
“Is it about track?” West recalls a girl asking.
“No, not exactly, but there is some running,” she recalls saying.
“We’re just playing games and having fun, right?”
“Well, sorta. But it’s more than that.”
Some girls left, unmoved by the pitch. Some picked up the fliers West had prepared. In the following days, several girls returned. Nichyria was one of them.
Nichyria is tall and lean, with a wide, infectious smile. Someday, she wants to be a lawyer. “I want to help people on their cases, to see if I can win,” she says matter-of-factly one recent afternoon, standing on the front lawn of her two-story white clapboard house in Jeffery Manor, a neighborhood on the Far South Side.
Nichyria says she approached her first year with Girls on the Run cautiously, “to see if it would be fun.” Indeed, it was fun, but rigorous.
Typically, the program lasts one hour after school (see sidebar) and is run by women who act as coaches. West talked her mother, Jennifer West, a retired immigration officer, into becoming a coach. Ramelia Williams, a 31-year-old real estate broker who lives near the school, volunteered.
Coaches take their cues from a 157-page curriculum stuffed into a black binder. Lessons bear names like: “Being a Girl of Your Word”; “Being Emotional is Healthy”; “Bullying is for the Birds.”
One lesson, for example, teaches that gossiping is bad. Very bad. “If you hear something, don’t go back and tell your friends,” Nichyria recalls one coach saying. She says gossip is pervasive at Ariel, as it is at other schools. But after that lesson, she observes, “I heard less gossip.”
In the second year, Nichyria stood taller. As a veteran, she knew the routine, was quick to explain to the new girls the ins and outs. When some girls got into arguments, West recalls Nichyria intervening, and saying, “This is how you can work together.”
Soon, Nichyria was picked to star in a video promoting Girls on the Run. Reporters, photographers and producers showed up at her door. Her nervousness didn’t show. In the video, she is sitting peacefully in a playground, hair pulled back in tight braids. “I feel good about myself . . . like I passed my goals,” she tells the camera, smiling widely.
Kelly O’Brien, executive director of Girls on the Run Chicago, says Nichyria was chosen because “she’s obviously lovely, and she put her finger on the program.” Angel Michaud, Nichyria’s mother, says she’s comfortable with how her daughter’s image has been used. “As a mother, it feels good,” she says of the attention.
Girls on the Run (girlsontherun.org) is growing quickly in the Chicago region: There are now more than 145 programs here, with some 2,000 girls participating. Much of the group’s expansion is focused on four communities: Humboldt Park, Gage Park, South Chicago and Waukegan.
There are other examples of the program’s progress. Coleman, Ariel’s principal, says several girls who have participated in Girls on the Run have become involved in other activities, like the drama club and choir. Some have formed Sisters with Style, a group that hosted a fashion show and set up booths selling food they cooked.
Nichyria has recruited five friends to Girls on the Run. Now she talks of joining the basketball team. She eschews fast food, candy and potato chips. She says she often tells her younger sister, “You have to be in shape. Now eat your fruit.”
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In step with the Girls
Although Girls on the Run at Ariel Community Academy teaches 24 different lessons over 12 weeks, here’s how a typical session might go:
Lesson: Bullying is for the Birds
3:30 p.m.: Meet in classroom for lesson intro. Girls write “Bullying” on their papers and brainstorm about different types of bullying behavior, including physical, verbal and emotional.
3:35 p.m.: Walk outside to begin warmup activity. Girls form a horizontal line and when the coach calls out a bullying behavior, the girls take two hops back. When a friendly behavior is called out, they run as fast as they can toward the coach until she blows the whistle.
3:50 p.m.: Form a circle and share thoughts on the warmup activity while stretching. Example: Coach asks, “Why do you think you had to hop backward when I mentioned a bullying behavior?”
3:55 p.m.: Workout. Each girl gets a list of scenarios. Example: “If you hear someone calling your friend names that are not nice, what would you do?” They run 2 laps, write down their response to the question, do 10 jumping jacks and begin running again.
4:20 p.m.: Stretch and reflect on what they’ve learned about bullying and how to handle it.
4:25 p.m.: Do the GOTR Cheer: “Girls on the Run is so much fun!”
4:27 p.m.: Healthy snack.
4:30 p.m.: Dismissal.
