With numbers continuing to rise, Girls on the Run celebrates remarkable rebound from pandemic

The resilience of running organizations post-pandemic is well documented — just look at the hearty registrations for local road races.

Yet when it comes to Girls on the Run, they're blowing away the field.

At the celebratory 5K on June 10 to conclude the nonprofit organization's spring season, Girls on the Run presented 664 participants between third and eighth grade, and with coaches, volunteers and community members also taking part, more than 2,300 enjoyed the festivities at Polar Park.

"They couldn't believe our field doubled in size," said Karen Spencer, the founding executive director of Girls on the Run Worcester County.

Sure enough, about 300 girls strong toed the starting line in June 2022 when the event ran at Polar Park for the first time. Such growth sports the fruits of the hard work of Spencer and others behind the scenes, generating sponsorships and securing grants to keep everything thriving.

Yet the nature of the program's positive approach to developing confidence in young girls secures the remarkable success.

"It's inspiring to me because I wished something like this was around when I was a kid," Spencer said.

The national organization Girls on the Run — GOTR for short — was founded in 1996, with just 13 participants, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has blossomed as a physical activity-based youth development program using fun running games and discussions to teach life skills, during 10-week sessions, one in the spring, the other in the fall. Girls participate in lessons that foster confidence, build peer connections and encourage community service, all while preparing for the celebratory 5K at the end of the season.

Spencer, who played field hockey and basketball while at Uxbridge High, observed the development of her oldest child Caitlin and the daughter of a friend from a young age. Discussions turned into curiosity, and Spencer read a book written by Molly Barker, who founded Girls on the Run, providing further inspration.

Spencer kicked off GOTR Worcester County in 2014, with valued support from the Uxbridge Public Schools. Sixty-nine girls were in that first class, 40 from Uxbridge. Soon, the Whitin Community Center and a club from Gardner were on board. Over the next five years, GOTR Worcester County had 25 teams, producing smiles among many girls in the region.

Then came COVID, and anything and everything shut down. GOTR's spring 2020 program was underway a week before being canceled, and refunds were made to all. Spencer got creative leading a virtual program that fall, but by then, teams in GOTR Worcester County had dwindled to nine.

But there was no quit in these girls, and the regrowth spurt started in earnest in spring 2021, when the governor gave the green light to outdoor running. "We keep building back, and the response has been amazing," Spencer said. "I can't say enough good things."

One huge boost came when the Worcester Public Schools came on board with chapters at their schools. Today, GOTR Worcester County has 147 volunteer coaches covering 45 teams at 39 sites, mostly schools, around Central Massachusetts. Across the country, there are 220 councils like Worcester County, with two in Canada, serving more than 2 million participants. There are two others councils in the state, one in Greater Boston, the other in Western Mass.

"It's just taken off like crazy," Spencer said.

In Worcester County, the program divides the age groups in two, the third through fifth graders, and the middle schoolers, in a group called Heart & Sole, a program reachng to the body, spirit and social connection of girls grades six through eight.

The youngest participants in that 2014 inaugural year are just graduating high school. Recently graduated Uxbridge High senior Katie Cullen, a T&G Super Team golfer, has been a speaker at GOTR Worcester County's benefit golf tournament, relating her experiences in the program. This year's tournament is slated for Aug. 21 at Shining Rock Golf Club in Northbridge.

While GOTR can lay the foundation for a runner's development, Cullen is an example of how skills from the program can be applied to many other disciplines. "People often think of this as just a running program," Spencer said. "This is great for every girl.

"The objective is to give girls who may not necessarily have strong support the message that they can find that strength in themselves," she added. "And in the Worcester schools, there aren't a lot of middle school sports opportunities."

Spencer, who coached in the program unpaid for 4½ years before devoting full concentration to management of the nonprofit, works full time while reporting to a board of directors. She has three part-time employees, with a possible addition of another soon. "Our board now is just amazing and such a pleasure to work with," she said.

While there are no programs during this summer, Girls on the Run Worcester County is gearing up for the fall season, preparing coaches' applications and training while looking for a venue for the celebratory 5K (of course Polar Park is in the running). The fall program is expected to start around the middle of September.

For more information, visit gotr-worc.org.

—Contact John Conceison at john.conceison@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ConceisonJohn.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Girls on the Run celebrates rise in participation in Worcester County