Once again I will be running Disney's Wine and Dine half marathon on November 5 as a SoleMate for Girls On The Run of Central Florida! SoleMates are charity runners, meaning that they volunteer to run a race in support of Girls On The Run (GOTR). For the past 10 seasons, I have volunteered as a GOTR coach at the elementary school where I teach in Columbus, Ohio.
GOTR is a nation-wide afterschool program for 3rd-8th grade girls. By participating in this program, the girls learn healthy habits, social skills, leadership skills, how to improve their self-confidence and ways to handle "friendship issues" through a variety of activities and games that incorporate running. Each season, the girls create and participate in a community service project. They end the season by completing a non-competitive 5K fun run with other teams from the area.
For the past few seasons, my team has been fortunate enough to be funded by a private grant. This grant has given each girl on the team a full scholarship, as well as provided them with new running shoes and socks. These grants are funded by donations, as GOTR is a non-profit organization. Any donations I receive will go to provide programming and scholarships to girls in Central Florida who may otherwise not have access to this program. Girls are never turned away from teams for financial reasons. Instead, the local councils rely on donations to help these girls through partial or full scholarships.
In the past, I have donated my time to the organization, but now I would like to do more! I want to raise awareness for this program (it's more than just an afterschool running club) as well as raise funds to give more girls a chance to participate. This is why I have chosen to run this race as a SoleMate for GOTR Central Florida.
