In six weeks, 36 fifth and sixth grade girls from P.A. Walsh Elementary School will put to the test what they’ve learned in a special club designed to keep them active and healthy.
The Mini Mermaids will run in the 5K at the Morgan Hill marathon Oct. 25.
The group, headed up by Walsh teacher Sara Saguid, wants to help the girls gain not just a healthy lifestyle, but a healthy attitude about themselves as well.
“It’s about fitness and nutrition and positive self-talk and confidence,” Saguid said. “And (it’s about) the self-esteem aspect and how it all ties together with the exercise and
keeping healthy.”
Mini Mermaids is part of a national organization established in 2009 that aims to get girls to fall in love with running as well as teach them how to eat and live healthy, according to the organization’s website.
“This is such a time where their bodies are changing and … (it’s a chance) to teach them about being healthy and making good choices with food when they have an opportunity to make a choice,” Saguid said.
She said sometimes the girls can’t always choose what they eat, but the club aims to give them the tools for when they get older and can decide on snacks, drinks and meals. And the girls seem to be excited about
the opportunity.
“It’s a good thing to run and it’s something to help you lose weight,” said Dulce Figueroa.
While most of the participants are first timers to the club, there are a couple of sixth grade girls who are back for a
second year.
Saguid took over Walsh’s program this year after the woman who previously started and ran the club had to step away.
Saguid had assisted with the program and said it was too valuable to let fall by the wayside.
“I didn’t want them to not have the opportunity,”
Saguid said.
Saguid said this is the largest turnout of girls the club has had in its short time at Walsh. Last year, she said, the club had a little more than 20 girls.
And to get them ready for the 5K, the girls need to have the right equipment.
That’s where the Running Shop of Morgan Hill stepped in.
They are outfitting all of the participants with new running shoes. On Tuesday, Paul Rakitin and his wife came out to Walsh to measure the girls’ feet so they can have their brand new shoes by early next week.
This is the third year that Rakitin has helped to outfit elementary school runners from the Morgan Hill Unified
School District.
He also has provided shoes to runners at San Martin Gwinn Elementary the last two years.
His first year, Rakitin said he donated six pairs of shoes, but last year with the help of the San Martin Lions Club, he was able to outfit the entire group.
“Last year we delivered the shoes and they were jazzed. It makes you feel so good when they’re opening up the shoes and they’re brand new shoes and they feel like a million bucks,” Rakitin said.
He said once the girls are done with the club, they’ll have an active shoe that will allow them to play as hard as they want for the next six months.
None of the girls will have to pay a dime for the shoes.
Thanks to donations from Maurizio’s and The Good Fork restaurants, the Academy of Self Defense in Santa Clara as well as private individuals, the full cost of the shoes—valued at about $1,000—was covered.
Maurizio’s restaurant covered $700 of the cost, with $200 more coming from the Academy of Self Defense, of which Saguid is a member.
