BUTLER TWP— Football players are taught to run to daylight.

Young girls are being taught to run to see the light.

Girls on the Run is a 12-week program for girls in grades three to five that's designed to educate and to prepare girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living.

Charlotte Kelly, a 1996 Butler graduate who went on to run track and cross country at Notre Dame, is in her second year of teaching in the Butler School District.

She is bringing the Girls on the Run program, coordinated regionally by Meredith Colaizzi of Magee-Women's Hospital, to Emily Brittain Elementary School this fall.

Mars third-grade teacher Alyssa Schmitt, with fellow teacher Marilyn Lapiska, is bringing the program to the Mars School District.

"I read about it and I really believe in the concept,"Schmitt said. "Marilyn and I have been running together for about a year now and decided to team up on this."

Kelly, Schmitt, Lapiska and Girls on the Run instructors from other school districts attended a seminar at Magee to become qualified to run their programs.

After 12 weeks of meeting twice a week for 90-minute sessions, Girls on the Run participants will be ready to run a 5K race and will do so together.

But Girls on the Run isn't about running at all.

"It's a program about character,"Kelly said. "This is all about getting young children to be physically active at a young age.

"It teaches them how to stand up for themselves, handle peer pressure, increases their self-awareness and self-esteem."

In the Emily Brittain program, which begins Sept. 25, the girls will get together from 3:45 to 5:15 p.m. each Tuesday and Thursday.

"This provides a healthy environment for girls to become part of during what is usually down time right after school,"Kelly said.

Girls on the Run was founded in 1996 in Charlotte, N.C., by Molly Barker, who is a four-time Hawaii Ironman triathlete.

Barker began running at age 15 when she found herself stuck inside what she calls the "girl box," in which girls who want to fit in must mold their bodies and personalties to fit a certain size and beauty to "be popular."

Barker developed the earliest version of the 24-lesson curriculum in 1996 with 13 girls.

This year, more than 36,000 girls in 150 cities participate in Girls on the Run programs.

Though it is a nonprofit organization, a fee of $130 is required to participate. This provides insurance, a water bottle and T-shirt for each girl, and covers administrative costs.

"Our operating budget is around $150,000 and some of the money helps supplement girls who otherwise could not afford to be in the program,"Colaizzi said. "We've never turned away any girl for financial reason."

The first four-week session helps the girls gain an understanding of themselves, learn their strengths and weaknesses, and examine their own core values and what makes them unique.

"It shows them how they can get along with each other, play and work together, while being different from each other,"Kelly said. "It's OKto be different."

The second four-week session explores getting along within a group, learning confrontation and assertiveness skills, and examining components of good decision-making.

The final four-week session includes exploring responsibility to community, and creating and implementing a community project together.

"That's one of my favorite parts of the program,"Kelly said.

An example of a learning tool during the program is having the girls squeeze all of the toothpaste out of a tube. While that process is fun, they are then asked to put the toothpaste back in the tube, which, of course, is nearly impossible.

This exercise is used to demonstrate that while gossip can be fun, its results cannot be undone.

"This is an amazing program in that it gives young girls a sense of personal identity while being part of a group,"Schmitt said. "It's an effective combination of mental and physical growth."

Colaizzi said 31 schools in Western Pennsylvania offered the Girls on the Run program last spring. Five more districts, Avonworth, Brashear, Monaca, Butler and Mars, picked it up this fall.

To enroll a girl in the Butler or Mars Girls on the Run program, call Colaizzi at 412-641-1596.