RELEASED: November 19, 2009

By Leigh Ivey

DANVILLE, KY—For the past five weeks, Centre College women have been making an impact on the lives of elementary-school girls.

Led by Laura Rolfe '10 of San Antonio, Texas, the first-ever Girls on the Go program (sponsored by the Boyle County YMCA) was created to teach the participants about living a healthy lifestyle.

To do this, the Centre volunteers hosted fourth- and fifth-grade girls in the College's Sutcliffe Hall for one day each week. Each session was divided into two parts: a nutrition lesson and a physical activity.

"Our 'nutritionist' and 'chef' was Centre alumna Natalie Dickerson, who graduated in 2008," Rolfe says. "She's wonderful! Every week, she brought the food and supplies necessary to prepare healthy snacks with the girls."

To instruct the girls about nutrition, Dickerson based her lessons on the colors of the rainbow.

"Each week, she discussed a different aspect of the Food Pyramid in the context of colors," Rolfe says. "One week, Natalie chose whole grains and incorporated the color yellow into the snack, which included whole grain wraps and banana-oat smoothies."

Ten to fifteen volunteers assisted in the food preparation process each week.

"The most impressive facet of the entire program has been the overwhelming response I've had from Centre students," Rolfe says. "They've been so willing to volunteer their time to assist with the program, even if they could only help for 30 minutes." 

During the nutrition lessons, the volunteers helped the girls create everything from fruit pizzas to exotic vegetable dips to yogurt parfaits.

“We wanted to present healthy habits," Rolfe says, "and we did this by introducing them to new foods, teaching them easy ways to create healthy snacks and showing them how many nutritious options exist."

After the nutrition lessons, the participants engaged in the activity portion of the program, which was hosted each week by a different Centre women's athletic team.

Members of the field hockey, volleyball, dance and lacrosse teams all devoted their time to teaching the girls about their sports and the importance of physical activity.

For example, the dance team led a lesson on the value of stretching and the importance of flexibility before teaching the girls a dance routine.

During the field hockey team's lesson, the girls participated in a variety of team-building activities and relays. And the volleyball and lacrosse teams taught the participants the basics of their sports before engaging in actual games with the girls.

The female athletes did more than just teach the Girls on the Go participants about sports. They also served as positive role models, something Rolfe knows young women everywhere desperately need.

"The goal was to show these girls that women come in all shapes and sizes," she says. "Every day, they're bombarded by the media, whether it's on TV, movies, magazines or advertisements. We wanted to show them that you can be a healthy, physically active woman without being pencil-thin."

Now that the pilot Girls on the Go program has come to an end, Rolfe says she is pleased with its success.

"Since it was a new program, I just wanted everything to go smoothly, for everyone involved to have fun, and to impart some knowledge on these girls," she says. "I think it ended as a huge success. This Tuesday, at the last session, every girl was talking about what they'd learned."

What she enjoyed most about Girls on the Go, however, was "the support I received from Centre and Danville. It makes me so proud to be a Centre student and a member of the local community."

Though the program has ended for the fall, Rolfe is already hard at work planning the program for the spring, which will last for eight weeks instead of five.

"I'm working now on getting more funding," she says. "This fall, The Hub coffee house generously donated $30 each week for food and supplies, which was wonderful, and I'm hoping a grocery store or other local businesses will be willing to support the program in the spring."

Because she has also received numerous requests from parents for a "Guys on the Go" program at Centre, Rolfe says she hopes to lay the groundwork for this possibility.

"There are so many willing volunteers on campus," she says, "so I think there's definitely a good chance that a boys program could be successful."

For more information about Girls on the Go, e-mail Laura Rolfe.

Have comments, suggestions, or story ideas? E-mail leigh.ivey@centre.edu with your feedback.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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