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Kim Rivera of West Reading with her daughter, Sophia, 8. The mother is working to create a Berks chapter of Girls on the Run, an international nonprofit that trains younger girls for a 5K race through a 12-week self-esteem program.
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Program would run girls into good choices
West Reading mother wants Berks to have own chapter of esteem-building nonprofit
Becca Y. Gregg
Reading Eagle
Kim Rivera remembers the euphoria she felt after crossing the finish line in her first half-marathon.
It was September 2006 - the Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon in Virginia Beach, Va. - and Rivera had been training for months.
"I never thought of myself as someone who could do that," the West Reading mother admitted. "But you set your goal. You work little by little toward your goal, and you get there. And then you realize that something that seemed insurmountable, you've done it."
It's that sense of accomplishment and self-confidence that Rivera hopes to pass on to her 8-year-old daughter, Sophia, and other Berks County girls.
"For a very long time, I've wanted to do something with running and young girls as a way to improve their self-esteem and teach them about goal setting and being healthy," said Rivera, an administrative assistant at Reading Area Community College.
Her answer came in the form of "Girls on the Run," an international nonprofit that targets girls in third through eighth grades.
"I've been dreaming about something like this," she said of the program, which combines running with lessons in self-esteem, peer pressure, teamwork and giving back to the community. "I thought, 'I need to do this in my own community.' "
Chapters of Girls on the Run already are in place in Lancaster, Montgomery and Lehigh counties. Rivera and her team are hoping to have Girls on the Run Berks sanctioned by summer's end.
Split into 12-week semesters, the program is generally run after school. Girls in grades three to five are grouped together, while grades six to eight participate in a similar "Girls on Track" program.
Ninety-minute sessions are held twice a week, integrating a running component with other curriculum delivered by a head coach and up to two assistant coaches.
Each semester culminates with participation in a 5K race.
Despite the name, Rivera stressed that running is secondary to the lessons learned.
"It's also a prevention program," she said. "Through the curriculum, they learn good decision-making skills that hopefully (will) prevent them from making poor choices in the future. And the girls are not required to run. They can walk, run, hop, skip, jump. The goal is simply to be active and keep moving forward."
Rivera's goal is to start with two Girls on the Run sessions in spring 2013. Between now and then, she'll be reaching out to Berks County school districts and organizations to introduce them to the program.
The eventual goal is to have Girls on the Run and Girls on Track programs in every Berks County school.
Though not an official council yet, Girls on the Run Berks will make its debut at RACC's annual 5K run and half-mile kids fun run Sunday at 10 a.m. at the college.
Rivera said the timing is perfect for the program's debut in and around Reading, which is among the country's most obese and impoverished cities.
"The implications of this program are huge," she said. "It's really a very holistic approach to the development of young girls - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual."
Contact Becca Y. Gregg: 610-371-5032 or bgregg@readingeagle.com.
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=379685
