Boys run for fun, strength

SITKA, Alaska (AP) - Fifth-grader E.J. Richards had a simple goal for the Boys Run finale.

“Just run,” said E.J., who’s in his third year of the program. “Try to keep jogging the whole time, and that’s it: make it through.”

Making it through - whether you’re walking, running or a mix of the two - is part of what the Boys Run program is all about, say organizers. It’s not about the activity itself.

“Running isn’t the focus,” said Lauren Havens, Boys Run coordinator. “It’s more of a tool to talk about goal-setting, sticking to something you put your mind to.”

The Third Annual Boys Run 5K Color Run started at the Crescent Harbor Shelter and took runners down to and around Sitka National Historical Park, and back to the shelter, reported the Sitka Sentinel (https://bit.ly/2hzJALB).

It was not a race: the goal was for all 26 boys in the program to finish.

“The 5K is the final celebratory event they’ve been working toward all season,” Haven said. Face paint, color powder, snacks and a focus on crossing the finish line - not the time - are all hallmarks of the event.

Sitkans Against Family Violence and the Sitka School District are the coordinators of the program “I toowu kaltseen,” roughly translated from Tlingit as “Strengthen Your Spirit.” Now in its third year, Boys Run is a twice-weekly, 10-week after-school program at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary that teaches social and emotional skills through running and cultural activities, Havens said.

The program works in partnership with the GLO 21st Century Learning Program, with support from the Sitka Native Education Program.

In Boys Run, students on two teams meet twice a week with four coaches who run the practices. That can include running, games and talks.

“It’s a fun program where they get to hang out with friends after school, learn about running, play some, and learn what it means to be a strong man,” Havens said. The head coaches are men, who facilitate discussions around gender.

Havens said, “We focus on inner strength, as opposed to outer strength.”

She said the program lines up well with the goals of SAFV.

“We support programs that support healthy masculinity,” she said. “We want boys to grow up feeling there are many ways they can be respectful, strong men.”

The idea for starting the Boys Run program in Southeast Alaska grew out of the already successful Girls on the Run, a national program that also is coordinated here by SAFV and the Sitka School District.

Havens said she and others had seen how the program benefited the girls who participated.

“We wanted to offer the same program to boys, with the same healthy message of growing up and being respectful, and having self-esteem,” she said.

Having adult coaches from Sitka provides the Boys Run participants with role models and a connection to the community.

“They’re contributing factors to kids growing up to be healthy and happy,” she said.

The kids also seem to enjoy the running component, which offers many life lessons.

“You keep moving forward,” Havens said. “It’s a sport they can do for the rest of their lives. You can think through things, work through anger, frustration, sadness - some love running.”

The program also seeks to connect the boys to their culture and their community, with the Sitka Native Education Program playing an active role.

“Connections to your culture and the place you live is important for boys to foster a sense of self-esteem and self-worth,” Havens said. “We believe it’s important to celebrate the place we live, and the rich culture. It’s woven into every aspect of the program. We talk about traditional values to teach lessons of inner strength. It’s an opportunity for kids to have access to information on traditional cultures that have been here many years.”

There was no Boys Run program in existence, so SAFV worked with a similar organization in Juneau - AWARE - to customize the new program for Southeast Alaska boys.

The program has been successful enough in its first years to think about expanding beyond Sitka and Juneau. Kake’s program premiered last fall.

Havens said she has seen positive changes in many of the participants here.

“A lot of what we see is an increase in confidence and being able to talk about issues that are important for them,” Havens said. “And we also see increased ability as a team: working together, cooperating. The third and fifth graders don’t hang out. They have to learn how to interact, how to support one another, how to get along with kids at their school - they’ve gotten better at that, being a group.”

School officials have told Havens that they’ve seen improvement in interactions in the classroom and on the playground, with conflict resolution.

Another testament to the success of the program is the fact that most kids return to the program from one year to the next.

E.J. said he was excited to be in the program for the pilot year, and came back the next two years.

“I think it’s pretty cool, that’s why I did it in fourth and fifth grade,” he said. “It’s fun because there are days with fun time, coaches give us valuable lessons: we usually learn lessons about friendship, feelings and emotions. If we get into an argument, we learn about ’I’ statements. … Also, it’s cool the coaches have Tlingit stories. There’s always a moral in the story.”

He said going into the finale that he was looking forward to the run, but also “bummed” because it’s the end of the program.

One newcomer, Noah Shell, was signed up by his mother, Sabrina, who was looking for a good sport for her son to try out in third grade. He was a little nervous at first, because he would be meeting a lot of kids he didn’t know, but he said he ended up enjoying it.

“I like running, and playing games,” he said. Mosquito, salmon, bear is a group favorite.

Sabrina said she was pleased to see her son take to running the way he did.

“Now he loves it,” she said. “He talks about the games, and how much fun he was having.”

Coaches for the program are Chuck Miller, Steve Hutchinson, Will Conlon, Michael Mausbach, Grace Heidel, Wes Holloway, Graeme Campbell, Amanda Capitummino and Tina Bachmeier. The school liaison is Diana Twaddle and the GLO coordinator is Margaret Galanin.

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Information from: Daily Sitka (Alaska) Sentinel, https://www.sitkasentinel.com/