Calling all "tween" girls between ages eight and 12.
There's a new program in town looking to teach girls powerful tools of self-awareness, self-love and empowerment through running.
Sole Girls is piloting in Cochrane this April 3 – running for nine weeks on Wednesday evenings through the Footstock race weekend and wrapping up June 5. The program is also running on Tuesday evenings in Bragg Creek.
"I'm really about creating community through running and giving back to the running community," explained Cochrane Sole Girls business owner, Laura Spruyt of Sprout Movement. "It's focusing on the joys of running ... girls thrive on team dynamic."
Laura, a passionate trail runner and ultra-marathoner – with 50 km runs in the bank – recently returned from a year abroad in Australia – where her husband, Chris, was able to take part in school teaching exchange.
Recognizing that tween-age girls are a critical age, she wanted to do something to boost female participation in sports and mental health for young girls.
"That's the time ... it's trying to get to those kids when they're starting to make decisions on their own," she said, adding that peer influence, body image, media awareness and the finite details of female friendships all begin to collide for that age group.
According to the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sports and Physical Activity (CAAWS), girls experience a sharper decline in sport participation in adolescence than boys.
This is attributed by CAAWS to a number of factors, including a perceived lack of financial opportunities for career as female athletes; a lack of prominent role models and inadequate media coverage; and a need for coaches who can foster positive experiences in sport for girls.
Further stats by CAAWS reveal that only 16 per cent of female adults report sport participation and if a girl hasn't participated in a sport by age 10, there is only a 10 per cent chance she will be physically active as an adult.
Sole Girls is a program that has exploded on the West Coast, after Ironman and triathlete Amanda Wiles was compelled to create change after a 15-year-old girl, Amanda Todd, took her own life and released a YouTube video before doing so – telling her compelling story of being cyber-bullied through flash cards.
"It's getting girls into an inclusive environment," explained Wiles, adding that around 5,000 girls have run through the Sole Girl programs which began in 2013. "The general feedback is 'I wish I had a program like this when I was younger'."
Laura said each week will begin with themes centered on mental health – such as bullying, mean girls, friendship dynamics and body image. This will spur into group activities, fueled by laughter and friendship and finish off with an outdoor run.
The Spruyt family, with two kids in tow, returned from Australia at the end of 2018 – in time for Laura to launch yet another program that builds on her enthusiasm for combining play and movement for children.
Before she left for Australia, Laura was building Sprout Movement – a series of active programs that promote the coming together of physical literacy and family.
Growing Roots Forest Play is an outdoor preschool that Laura is in partnership with. Sprout Together is a parent and preschooler program centered around movement that she intends to resume at a later date.
To learn more about Sole Girls Cochrane, visit sproutmovement.ca.
The cost is $220 for the nine-week Sole Girls program, which wraps up the week after Footstock. Parents are encouraged to run with their girls at the annual spring run weekend event.
