To a lot of us, running seems like work, or at least exercise. But for a group of girls in Sitka, running is actually pretty fun.
They’re part of an after-school program that combines running with learning important life lessons. It’s encouraged one fifth-grader to dream about her future.
Nikkia Brazell is 10-years-old and loves to run.
“It feels really fun and sometimes when you get to run with your friend, you have fun, you get to laugh,” Nikkia said.
But she hasn’t always been into running. She started liking it a lot more when she joined Girls on the Run last year.
“Go go go go go, Lorena!”
It’s a national program that began in North Carolina in 1996. It was created to inspire girls to be confident and healthy through running.
“Ready? Set? Go!”
Girls on the Run got its start in Sitka five years ago. Every spring, girls in grades three through five meet twice a week at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary.
Nikka says running with a group of only girls makes her feel safer.
“Boys can, like, push you to the limit, but when girls are there, they don’t push you at all,” Nikkia said. “Like, you know how they throw the ball sometimes at you? Girls don’t do that.”
The ultimate goal of the program is to decrease domestic violence by giving girls tools that help build their self-esteem, making them less likely to become victims later in life.
There are 24 practices and each one teaches a different lesson. It might be how to stop bullying or resist peer pressure. Kym Johns is Nikkia’s coach and is leading today’s lesson.
“One very powerful idea that we are going to talk about today is the power we have to choose our friends,” Kym said.
The game encourages girls to choose friends who celebrate who they are just the way they are. Kym reads positive and negative messages, like, “Wow! That report you did was awesome!” or “Oh my gosh, you can do done better than that.”
And depending on the type of message, the girls either run in a circle with a bounce in their step or slowly drag their feet.
At practice, Nikkia is a bit quieter than a lot of the girls. And she says her favorite activity is an introspective one.
“Well, we tried running silently, and it was kinda hard for some girls, but I tried it and I started liking it,” Nikkia said.
She says the exercise gives her quiet time to think about what she wants to do and who she wants to be when she grows up.
“I thought about working as a teacher,” Nikkia said. “Yeah, I also want to learn how to speak Tlingit because I already know the Pledge of Allegiance in Tlingit.”
Brian Sparks is a domestic violence prevention specialist at the women’s shelter in town, Sitkans Against Family Violence, or SAFV. He organizes the local branch of the program and says he hopes Girls on the Run will help change social norms on a bigger scale.
“They spread these lessons. Let’s say the not gossiping lesson. Well, okay so now if somebody who’s not in Girls on the Run, you know, starts to gossip, there’s a critical mass of girls who have attended Girls on the Run who don’t accept that behavior anymore,” Brian said.
On a recent Saturday, all the girls’ hard work is put to the test. They’re running a 5K to celebrate the end of the season. They choose running teams and pose for a group photo.
Nikkia ran the 5K last year, and says that even though it was hard, she was proud that she set a goal and she stuck to it.
“Ready? Ready? 3, 2, 1, RUN! Wooooo!”
This year, she did even better. She says she plans to keep running and wants to become a girls on the run coach someday.
