When
Girls on the Run Cincinnati launched nearly a decade ago, the organization served about 12 girls. But this spring, when it celebrates its 10-year anniversary, the nonprofit will reach its 10,000th girl.
GOTR Cincinnati offers a semester-long program to girls in third through eighth grade that provides a running-based curriculum that inspires confidence, healthy living and happiness with an end goal for participants to complete their first
5k.
“If you’re ever there to see them cross the finish line, the expression on their face—you can’t put that into words,” says Jo Craven, GOTR Cincinnati’s new Executive Director. “It gives them the sense that, if I can do this—set this goal and train and meet this goal—I can do anything, because for them—8- or 9-year olds—to run 3.1 miles, it seems like probably quite a daunting task when they first start training, and many don’t even understand the concept of how far that is.”
Craven began her work with GOTR Cincinnati in 2009 as a
volunteer coach; and now, as a retired school principal, the nonprofit has become her priority.
“When I first heard about Girls on the Run, my daughter was in fifth grade, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’d be so great—not only for my school and the girls, but also for my daughter,” Craven says. “So I became a volunteer—a head coach—and started a team in our school last spring.”
Although running is a central component to the curriculum, Craven says it’s “the whole social, emotional, self-confidence piece” that’s incredibly powerful for the girls.
After spending 31 years in Northern Kentucky school systems, Craven says she had the advantage of watching girls grow up, and she saw first-hand the ways the program positively influenced the girls who took part.
“We had a little girl who was very shy and who lacked confidence in and out of the classroom; so in fifth grade, she participated, and it made just a huge difference in the way she carried herself,” Craven says. “She’d walk down the hall and have her hair over her face, not make eye contact with anyone—she didn’t really participate in class—but we saw quite a transformation in her socially and academically. And if you talk to coaches and parents across the country, you’d hear that same story over and over again. It really impacts the whole girl—socially, emotionally, and physically.”