WHITEFISH — Girls on the Run of Western Montana is part of an international program that teaches young women how to live a healthy lifestyle and develop social skills.
The program works for 12 weeks to get the members ready to run a 5K, which, thanks to a new partnership, will be run at the Wave 5K at the Whitefish Marathon.
Girls on the Run board member Amanda Horelick says the partnership will do great things for the program.
“It’s just bigger, right?” Horelick said. “There's more things going on. There's an expo, there's lots and lots of people watching this race instead of us doing our own, where we just have parents as spectators. I think it's going to be a huge celebration of the accomplishments that these girls are going to accomplish at the end of the season.”
After seeing the positive impact Girls on the Run has had with young runners across the country, it was easy for Wave 5K general manager Art Krueger to form this partnership with the organization.
”To be able to pull this off and to help those girls achieve their goals, and to see the excitement when they cross that finish line, and to really reinforce a positive, healthy lifestyle, that's what it's about for us,” Krueger said.
But more than just running, Girls on the Run teaches its members about social situations and conflict resolution skills they can take with them for the rest of their lives.
These lessons have been taken to heart by one of the young members, Griffie Schreiner, who put those skills to work.
“I just had to go — a boy was bullying a second grader by throwing footballs at her,” Schreiner said. “He's over there playing basketball, and I told him what was wrong about that and how he should be the example.”
With the skills learned in the program and the experience the girls will take with them from the race, those involved hope it will be an event they will never forget.
“Just watching them realize, I actually can do this, this is something that I can do not only now but I can do this for the rest of my life, right?” Horelick said. “I started running when I was their age and never stopped, and I think a lot of that came from just being supported, and that's what we're trying to do for these girls.”
The Whitefish Marathon will take place Saturday, May 16.
