Off and running Area girls in Girl Quest eye goal of finishing 5K event

Alyssa Rottler has learned pushing herself to be physically fit helps her study better.

"It helps me to push myself to concentrate on school," said Alyssa, 11, a sixth-grader at Napoleon Middle School.

Alyssa is among 15 girls at the school who have been participating in Girl Quest this semester.

The after-school program seeks to build the esteem of preteen girls by emphasizing the importance of physical, mental and spiritual health, and character education.

About 350 girls from 17 elementary and middle schools in Jackson and Hillsdale counties are participating in the 10-week program this semester. It is funded by various grants.

Girls in grades three through seven train to run in 5-kilometer events. The last race of the school year starts at 7 p.m. Friday at Advance Packaging, 2400 E. High St.

"The goal is finishing the 5K, and I don't care how long it takes them to do it," said Debbie Lazaroff, who coordinates the program for the Jackson County Intermediate School District.
"My mantra is to get kids running."

Colleen Hopson, 12, is one of the Napoleon girls who made new friends through the simple act of running. "It's made it a way that you can exercise and still have fun," she said.

Some of the exercises and activities are designed to help the girls learn how to adapt to their ever-changing bodies, said Jen Latocki, a Napoleon middle school teacher who coaches the program.

"I got to learn how to use my speed more wisely," said Erica Shepard, 12, of Napoleon.

Five area elementary schools are piloting a program for boys to see if it has the same results that Girl Quest has seen in recent years, Lazaroff said.

Latocki said the program has matured her team of girls.

"The bad behavior has definitely gone down," said Latocki, a seventh-grade teacher. "Self-esteem has gone up in all of them."

Latocki is assisted this semester by Jackson Community College student Jessica Page, 19, who volunteered to help.

Each girl gets a T-shirt and a new pair of running shoes.

Lazaroff said the program is in search of business sponsorships. She can be reached at 768-5238

The Advance Packaging 5000 is the 1st race of the season for me this year. It's also one of my favorite ones. I especially like it because it's at 7pm.

I tried to get the day off but instead I'm getting out 2 hours early. It won't make much difference this year. I'm working 7-3:30 so even if I hadn't arranged to get out early I would have plenty of time to get there. Also I haven't ran a step since the last race which was last AUGUST!!

Needless to say, even though I am usually last to finish, for sure this year I will not be in contention. Hee.

Another reason I like this race is because of the Girl Quest girls participating. There a ton of them. Some of them are so little!! They run in little bunches. Some take off and run really fast, then slow down, others start off slow and speed up later and others take it nice and easy the whole way.

The mentors run with them and yell out encouragement and come back to the ones who are having a hard time. The Lumen Christi (my high school) cheerleaders and running team help out and make up posters and stick them in the ground with cheesy slogans. Some of the mentors are hot guys!!

At the finish line there is a radio station and food and it's a bunch of fun. It's so much fun.

Even if I'm not a real runner it's fun and I love it. And I'll get another T-shirt for my quilt!

So there is this stupid new sitcom on Mondays with David Spade in it. I only watch it because I like "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and 1/2 Men" and it's on between it.

But anyway, it also has David Puddy from Seinfeld and he had a bunch of T-Shirts that his wife wanted to throw out but he wanted to keep them. So about a week later he came home and she had a surprise for him. It was a T-Shirt Quilt!!! How funny. He was mad at first but then he loved it. He took pictures of it with his camera phone and was showing strangers in the bar. And reliving how he got each T-Shirt and what was going on in his life at that time.

The quilt was really nice too. I hope mine turns out as well. If I ever finish it.

Right now, I'm still ironing on interfacing to Jodie's shirts. I have to finish up a few for Brian's and make another column for mine.

I had been thinking about making a T-Shirt quilt for a long time. I can't remember where I first even heard about one. In the summer I enter 5k races and almost everyone you get a T-Shirt with registration. I also have a bunch of Hard Rock Cafe shirts. Last March my mom & I took a class at Country Stitches. They should have put in the class sheet that you get before hand to cut the shirts ahead of time, because the majority of the 4 hour class was just cutting the shirts and ironing on the interfacing. Then probably about 6 months later we took another class after all our T-Shirts were cut & ironed and learned how to sew them together in the columns. Thats mine above. I changed my mind on 3 shirts so I need more interfacing for those. They are having another class in April that I'm going to try to get to so I'll know what to do next.

In the meantime, Jodie wants one now. She brought over 39 T-Shirts! Saturday I cut them. I ironed 9 of them and already ran out of interfacing because her designs are HUGE!

I'm helping my mom with hers too. I have 3 of her columns done and need interfacing to finish up some more.

I'm thinking that my quilt is going to be front and back T-Shirts instead of a solid color on the back. I'll get at least 5-8 shirts this season in the 5k's plus I have some golf shirts and a sweatshirt I forgot about.

I think that when I go to JoAnn Fabrics today I'll see if they have a new bolt of interfacing and I'll just buy that. I'm sure we'll use it all.