Girls on the Run Las Vegas is on the move.
The nonprofit, one of more than 150 offshoots of the national, North Carolina-based organization of the same name, seeks to empower girls and gender-expansive youth in the third through eighth grade to be confident, caring and connected through new skills, community involvement and physical exercise.
“We have found that, by having this kind of program before they hit middle school, they’re able to really appreciate how unique they are, how amazing they are, and take that into middle school,” said Kate McLaughlin, executive director. “Being confident enough about who you are allows you to take chances and to grow in a way that you just can’t otherwise.”
The Las Vegas chapter, established in 2011, has expanded from seeing about 600 participants each year to 1,500 this year, said McLaughlin, who attributed the growth spurt to the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it emphasized a need for social and emotional learning.
“The demand for our program has just grown exponentially over the past few years,” she said. “Because we serve a need that always existed, but people are much more aware of now than they were before COVID.”
The program is a 10-week “season” each semester, located at several schools and other community sites around Clark County.
There are typically about 40 teams of up to 20 girls each season, and each team has anywhere from one to five coaches. They meet twice a week for a new lesson, and the goal at the end of the day is to “share joy,” McLaughlin said, whether that’s through games aimed at making participants laugh or everyone writing down what makes them happy while also exercising.
By the end of each season, teams complete a community service project that they design and execute themselves, as well as a 5K on UNLV’s campus.
“It helps the girls realize that they can make a difference in this world,” McLaughlin said of the community service project. “They may be little, they may not have any money, they may not have a car or be able to drive—it doesn’t matter. They can still have an impact.”
As for the 5K, it’s not important whether a participant runs, walks or rolls, McLaughlin said. It’s not about who finishes the fastest—just that they cross the finish line.
“The mixture of amazement and pride on their faces when they come across that finish line is just the neatest thing ever,” she said, noting that girls are encouraged to be “goofy” and often complete the race decked out in tutus, face paint and more. “Because they’re realizing, ‘I actually did it.’ And that’s what we want. We want them to realize that they’ve got that potential in them.”
Girls on the Run Las Vegas Program Manager Alaina Adams called the 5K a community celebration and “big party” for the girls and—oftentimes—their parents who may participate. There’s such a huge sense of accomplishment when they cross the finish line, she said.
“There’s no words,” Adams said. “Every single girl is smiling crossing that finish line, which is overwhelming. It’s hard not to cry and get emotional at this event.”
The program is dedicated to nipping self-doubt and negative self-talk in the bud, she said, before it can settle in during adolescence. Each lesson lends itself to helping girls express and manage their emotions in a healthy way, seeing it demonstrated and modeled for them through their lessons and other activities.
McLaughlin said her own child—who participated in the program four times—almost immediately stepped into leadership roles at their high school because of the confidence they gained from Girls on the Run.
Her child is comfortable with who they are, McLaughlin said, which is a level of confidence she didn’t have at that same age.
“I thought I was supposed to be certain things,” she said. “And if I wasn’t, I thought I was deficient, rather than simply understanding that … every single one of us is different. And that is what is so cool about the world, is that we’re all different. And if we stop squashing down those things that make us different, not only is the world going to be a much more interesting place, but we’re also going to be able to do so much more.”
Going forward, McLaughlin said, the organization aims to serve an additional 250 girls per year, which will hopefully be made possible through the addition of Camp GOTR—a program it is piloting next summer that will include finance and robotics lessons, among other activities.
The more girls who participate, the more money the organization needs to raise, McLaughlin said. She noted that most of the girls in the program attend schools where the free and reduced-price lunch rate is 70% or higher, and the organization also has a program dedicated to serving parents of color at low-income schools.
Many participants see the cost of the program either discounted or taken care of entirely, McLaughlin said, and she pointed to a partnership with Adidas that allows the organization to provide girls with a pair of adequate running shoes.
The Clark County School District, which McLaughlin said uses some of its COVID-19 funding to pay for afterschool programming of Girls on the Run, and MGM Resorts International also provide substantial funding.
“We’re going to keep growing and serve more sites every year to reach more girls every year,” she said. “And my goal is simply to do that in a way that allows us to grow without tripping over our own feet, because I’m not going to compromise on quality. Every single girl needs to have an incredible experience.”
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