As a national sponsor of the Girls on the Run SoleMates charity runner program, Garmin is partnering with this great organization to further their mission and share the stories of the women and men who are “running for a reason”. Runners can sign up for any event — runs, walks, bike rides or triathlons — and raise funds that will support their chosen council of Girls on the Run. Want your next race to help change lives? Find out more here.

This month’s story comes from Ati, a social worker and Girls on the Run leader who’s actively initiating social change in Southeast Alaska.
 
I am the founder and council director of Girls on the Run of Southeast Alaska through the affiliate support of AWARE, Inc. (Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies). It is because of AWARE and the Humpies that our council exists. The Humpies (named after the pink salmon found throughout our region) is an all women's fly-fishing club. We drank wine, ate chocolate and occasionally worked on fly rods. We were social workers and teachers with a passion for social change, Alaskan adventure and good girlfriends.
 

The Humpies came into my life at a time when real friendship was something I needed, right after a 30-foot rock climbing accident days prior to climbing Denali.  The Humpies taught me that the only thing I needed to do was be myself — as outrageously and authentically as I could — through the light and the dark of life. My life and climbing accident had just taught me that life can be hard. I hit bottom. I was experiencing chronic pain and depression.

We started our Girls on the Run council to share the power of what happens when girls and women come together and experience themselves as perfect as they are. Our council grew from coffee shop Humpie talk to the strongest strategy in AWARE’s violence prevention strategic plan. GOTR is in every elementary school in Juneau and offers programs throughout Southeast Alaska in small isolated villages and towns — places you have to boat or fly into to visit. Places that have experienced cultural genocide, intimate partner/ sexual abuse...places that have hit bottom.

I am now a SoleMate training for my first triathlon because these are communities that benefit from the power of what happens when girls and women come together. I am a SoleMate because I believe in healing and social change. I am a SoleMate because Girls on the Run has the power to change your life too.