By Katie Vaughn | Photography by Hillary Schave
For Christine Benedict, running a half mile in sixth-grade gym class was life-changing. “I found this thing that made me feel good about myself and empowered,” she says.
Now, as executive director of Girls on the Run of South Central Wisconsin (GOTR), Benedict helps other girls discover their own strength and potential through running.
Founded in 1996, GOTR has served more than two million girls throughout the United States and Canada, using a running-centered curriculum to promote physical and emotional health, teamwork, self-esteem and more. Girls in third, fourth and fifth grade meet twice a week with volunteer coaches after school for nine weeks and then participate in an inspiration-packed, noncompetitive 5K.
Locally, the South Central Wisconsin council serves Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock and Sauk counties, and will expand this spring to include Grant, Lafayette and Richland counties to reach more than 2,200 Wisconsin girls.
Also this year, Girls on the Run of South Central Wisconsin will celebrate its 20th anniversary with an event on the International Day of the Girl in October. It will honor the 25,000 girls who have experienced GOTR since the local council’s founding and look to the future of empowering even more girls.
“I believe deeply in the power of women and girls. I believe that girls with confidence become women who are catalysts for societal change,” Benedict says. “I can’t get enough of the success stories that teachers and families share with us about the kids who were shy and reserved at the start of the season, and have been able to find their voice and tap into their limitless potential through our programming. Those GOTR 5K finish line smiles keep me going all year!”
WHAT’S BEEN A STANDOUT MOMENT FOR YOU?
“Getting to see a small-scale, site- based 5K during the fall of 2020. We forged ahead with outdoor, masked, very small-scale team programming, taking every precaution.”
