Homer’s South Peninsula Haven House is currently hosting two after school youth running programs. “Girls on the Run” is a national program for third to sixth grade girls that Homer has been hosting since 2014. The activity was founded in 1996 as a non-profit organization designed to enhance participants’ social, emotional and physical skills to successfully navigate life experiences. There are now over two million girls who participate in the event on a national level: Homer’s program has 13-15 participants with five coaches. The National Afterschool Association recognizes Girls on the Run as “one of the most influential after-school programs in health and wellness.”
Homer’s Marcee Gray is one of the coordinating coaches and has contributed to the program for six years. Gray noted that this is the first year Homer started a similar program for young male runners, “Let me Run.” This program started their season a little later than the girls’, they are now in their third week and currently have 11 participants. Gray was a key instigator for the boys program and was able to help secure grant funding for the program to help support registration fees for participants:
“My vision for this program was really a male empowerment program where men would be coaches. Starting out, it was looking pretty hard and talking to other people, we're only the third community in the state of Alaska for this program, and we're the only one in the main part of Alaska. The other two are Ketchikan and Juneau. We're the only one in the main part of Alaska, which is pretty cool. I have an amazing coaching staff of men, six men, who are doing it. That's really awesome,” Gray said.
Participants in both programs will engage in a 5k event halfway through the season, and then the season ends with a final 5k in conjunction with the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival Run on May 10th.
“We have some sponsorship and support from the Kachemak Bay Running Club, and so we run our 5k and then another in combination with the Migration Run for shorebird festival. So that run will be the 10th of May, and it's pretty fun because both these programs are not really timed events, they're not really competitive programs. The Migration Run for the running club starts at Pier One theater and runs to the bottom of the spit, and we start at their finish and finish at their start. So, it's kind of nice. So the kids pass those runners on the course together, and it's really fun. They high five each other and cheer for each other as they go along. And it's really a neat community event that way,” Gray said.
More information on the Migration Run will be available soon through the Kachemak Bay Running Club website: kachemakbayrunningclub.org.
Reporting from Homer, this is Emilie Springer.
