JEFFERSON TWP — A national running program that empowers girls in grades three to five has taken off at the South Butler School District.

Girls on the Run is a community-based program that was initiated in the district by Hope Hull, who is a third-grade teacher at the primary center.

The South Butler club was the largest startup in the nation two years ago when it began, Hull said, with about 60 girls participating.

The mission of the running-based club, according to the national website, is to “inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.”

The girls in the South Butler club have been practicing since early March for the Girls on the Run 5K race, starting at 9 a.m. May 20 at Hartwood Acres in Hampton Township, Allegheny County.

The race is open to the 75 Girls on the Run clubs in the Pittsburgh area as well as the public, and attracts about 10,000 runners each year.

To encourage the girls further, Hull decided this year to enlist older girls from the middle school and high school to write the club members letters of encouragement as they prepare for the 5K.

“Some are program graduates, but most are other girls who want to make a difference in the lives of the younger girls,” Hull said.

The older “mentor” girls also will help out in the primary center Thursday when the club works on its annual community service project.

Hull said the girls decided at a recent meeting to again make dog and cat toys for the Butler County Humane Society. The club made about 80 toys last year.

The girls will braid strips cut from old shirts to create tug-of-war toys for dogs, and place empty water bottles inside socks and sew them shut for noisy chew toys for the dogs.

Tiny bells and pompons will be attached to strings for cats at the humane society.

The project will be funded through a gift card from Magee Womens Hospital of UPMC in Pittsburgh, which is the local hub for the Girls on the Run program.

Hull thinks the club is very important for young girls, especially in these modern times.

“Girls are met with so many different challenges in the world today,” Hull said. “They're fed so many different things and they've got to learn to be more confident and believe in themselves.”

While running is the key activity in the club, every meeting includes a lesson that builds the girls' character, confidence, leadership skills and friendship obligations, Hull said.

The older mentors serve as role models for the girls, she said.

“When you go to the middle school and you're faced with social situations and issues of that age, I think they will be better able to navigate through those rough waters (because of the club),” Hull said.

Knoch High School junior Abby Fields serves as both a junior running coach and mentor for the Girls on the Run program.

Abby was surprised at the number of girls who come to her for advice and to talk about situations in their lives.

“I think it's great that they can have an older influence to get that perspective from someone closer to them in age than their parents,” Abby said.

She used as an example a young girl in the program who approached her this week to tell Abby that she said “hi” to her friend in the school hallway twice and the friend did not reply.

Abby advised the girl to try one more time because the friend might not have heard her or might have been distracted.

If the friend does not respond, Abby will bring the two girls together for some conflict resolution.

Abby said the 56 young girls in the program come from widely varying backgrounds and have many different interests, but she wants them to understand that they can still be friends.

Originally, Abby became a junior coach and mentor for the program to earn community service hours.

“But it has become so much more,” she said. “I didn't realize how attached I would get to these girls.”

More information on the Girls on the Run 5K is available at www.gotrmagee.org.