Cross Country Impacting the Community - Geneva College Athletics

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Cross Country Impacting the Community

Beaver Falls, PA—For most elementary school students, college kids are people they look up to, people they like to spend time with. For those kids that love athletics, college student-athletes can seem even more exciting to be around. So last year, when senior Madelyn Blosser was doing her internship at New Brighton in the 4^th grade class, she was asked if she and her cross country teammates would be interested in helping with a group of elementary school girls who were participating in the national organization Girls on the Run. It turned out to be a great fit.

The organization Girls on the Run states on its website that its mission is to "inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running." The organization has a training curriculum for the young girls to use as they train over the semester in preparation to take part in a 5K race. In the New Brighton chapter of the organization, there were 20 elementary school girls who participated this year.

"Most of the girls we worked with were not regularly involved in sports," Blosser said. "Some of the girls came from lower income neighborhoods, so the program gets them a pair of sneakers to run in, and then our team worked with the girls not only to help them run, but to try to help build up their self-esteem, to teach them team-building, and how to communicate in a positive way with others. Ultimately we just tried to be a good role model for the girls."

All ten of the women on the cross country team participated over the semester. The team would go over to New Brighton once each week for practice. Most of the Geneva student-athletes would pair up with one or two of the girls and run with them. But more than running, they also tried to just be a friend to the young girls, encouraging them however they best could.

The season culminated with a 5K race last weekend. Some of the girls had progressed enough to make it through the whole race while running, but many others did a combination of running and walking. Either way, the Geneva team members were right there by their side encouraging them the whole way.

"This is the second year we've done it, and I know all of us had a really positive experience," Blosser added of the cross country team. "None of us really think of ourselves as a role model, but through this experience we realized that we can all make a difference in the lives of young people just by being a friend, and by spending time with these girls. It was really neat to see how the girl that I spent most of my time with over the last two years has grown up, both physically, but also in maturity, so that was encouraging to see."

Blosser hopes the relationship between the Geneva cross country team and the New Brighton program can continue next year, even after she graduates. It's the type of impact that Geneva College students can have on the community, putting legs and feet on the vision of the College that Geneva would "inspire students to integrate faith in Christ into all aspects of life in the real world, and to serve faithfully within their callings for Christ and Country."

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