Book of Dreams: Girls on the Run not only helps to learn running – it prepares for life
Girls often start school as small but mighty little learners. Sometimes life gets in the way.
Bullying or loss of a beloved parent or sibling can slow them down, leading to low self-esteem and a soundtrack of negative natters that loop into a downward spiral of the spirit.
Girls on the Run of Greater Sacramento picks up these youngsters and helps them keep moving up. Under its program, in a matter of months, third- through fifth-grade girls learn teamwork, empathy, anger management and much more.
Everyone gets a nickname of their choosing. Oh, and they get to run!
The group’s goal is to prepare girls for a 5K run, such as the one they ran in November. More groups will form in the spring for a May run. All the girls get their journals at the start of the program to help them keep track of their exercise progress and their social and emotional growth during the season.
“When we started Girls on the Run in Sacramento, we only had a fall program,” said Stephanie Tseu, executive director. But when coach Candace “Shackalacka” Beam, a sixth-grade teacher at Joseph Sims Elementary School in Elk Grove, transferred here from Florida, she insisted that the group needed a spring run as well.
This year, with help from The Sacramento Bee’s Book of Dreams program, organizers are hoping to receive $10,000 to pay for two Title 1 (disadvantaged school) teams, covering the participants’ shoes, curriculum and 5K fees.
‘I’m a runner now’
She said her Florida schools considered the Girls on the Run program there to be year-round.
“It just made sense, since we were missing some girls who were involved in fall sports. This way, they get a choice,” Beam said.
She’s now in her 11th year of working with Girls on the Run and its companion program for sixth- through eighth-graders, Heart & Sole.
It’s not just the girls who get better at running, either. Coach Trena “Fierce” Furlow, a fifth-grade teacher at Sims, said she could barely run around the track when she first started with the program. Now she’s preparing for longer-distance running. “I’m a runner now,” she said.
Three girls joined Beam and Furlow on the track on a chilly day in early December. Alexa Zarate, a fourth-grader, “was so shy that she could barely get out three words,” said her mother, Marcela Ledesma. Now she was beaming and goofing around with the other two girls, Honesty Williams and Charlea Hill.
Charlea, now in sixth grade, “Heart & Sole” age, but because she’s still at Sims instead of in a middle school, she is a junior coach for the younger girls. Although she thinks running is the best part of the program, she said “learning to stop and take a breather, especially when you’re under stress” has been a great lesson.
Honesty said she started out as a good runner. “I could run a mile, no problem,” she said. But she said she now can run three miles “easy.” She likes being in a group that cheers one another along. “I’m encouraged by the cheering,” she said, but added: “I don’t need it. I’d run anyway.”
Learn more than running
The girls also learn to make decisions – from little ones such as choosing a nickname, to bigger ones such as choosing a community service project to work on. They meet for 90 minutes after school, twice a week.
They practice compromise – “That’s so hard for adults, but it’s really, really hard for kids,” said Tseu. And they learn to stand up for themselves, and be good friends to others.
“They learn to get in touch with their inner ‘star,’” said Furlow, noting that sometimes, like the stars in the sky, that inner one is big and bright, but sometimes clouds can obscure it. The curriculum has varied exercises for the girls to work through, so that each year is a little different.
Although the running is a big draw for the girls, the program “values connection over competition,” Tseu said.
Girls on the Run, which has programs in four local counties, doesn’t want any child who desires to join to face a financial barrier, and Tseu acknowledged that the $185 curriculum fee is steep for many families. The board decided a couple of years ago to ditch the financial-need application that had been required.
“A lot of parents just would take one look at the paperwork and decide it wasn’t something they wanted, even if their child wanted to join. So we got rid of it,” Tseu said. “But that means we need to raise enough money so everyone can have good shoes to run in, and to pay the 5K entry fees for every girl who wants to run.”
In 2022, nearly 50% of all local Girls on the Run participants received some financial aid. That’s up from only 30% in previous years.
Book of Dreams
The request: Girls on the Run of Greater Sacramento is seeking $10,000 to sponsor two running teams with coaching, shoes, race fees and off-the-track teaching of critical life skills.
How to help: You can make a donation at sacbee.com/bookofdreams.