The Impact of Girls Run Global on the SEGA Girls: Celebrating the Inaugural International Day of Play
June 11th marks the inaugural "International Day of Play" a significant milestone in preserving, promoting, and prioritizing play. This day emphasizes the importance of play for all people, especially children, enabling them to thrive and reach their full potential. Maya Mor, the founder of Girls Run Global, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering girls through running, shares her experiences in this blog. She recounts her visit to SEGA Girls' School and the first-time collaboration of Girls Run Global with the SEGA Girls.
Sports have long proven to be much more than fun and games. They are a powerful—and often overlooked—tool with a remarkable ability to create a lasting positive impact on individual lives, communities, and the globe.
As a soon-to-be competitive collegiate runner, I have personally experienced how sports can change lives. Running has made me who I am, and I have long dreamt of sharing its amazing impact with other girls who could benefit from it most. For that reason, I recently launched Girls Run Global, a nonprofit organization that aims to empower girls through the sport of running. Running is unique because it is incredibly inclusive, requires fewer resources than other sports, and develops important life skills that better prepare girls to accomplish their biggest dreams.
Specifically, Girls Run Global partners with schools in countries where girls face prominent gender barriers to launch girls’ running teams. Our hope is that Girls Run Global running teams not only provide girls with the opportunity to participate in sport (where oftentimes girls do not get the chance to do so) but also serve as a safe space for girls to develop life skills and be unapologetically themselves. We could not have been prouder or more honored to launch the first Girls Run Global running team with none other than the SEGA Girls’ School!
The concept for Girls Run Global began fairly simply: a determined girl who dreams of building a more just world for women and girls using the sport she loves. I chose to take a gap year between high school and college and wanted to use the time to realize the dream I had long had. I came across SEGA Girls’ School and was so impressed that (in a somewhat spur-of-the-moment decision) I immediately expressed interest in bringing running gear and getting girls involved in the sport. Saying that “the rest is history” glosses over thousands of hours of hard work, important conversations, and an overwhelming amount of generosity. However, that first email initiated the development of what I hope will become a thriving organization that supports thousands of girls.
The months of preparation with Nurturing Minds/SEGA saw Girls Run Global’s approval as a 501(c)(3) organization and finalizing a plan for our team launch program at the school. Furthering my belief in our organization’s mission, every single one of the seventy girls in Form 2 signed up for our program (participation was completely optional), a testament to girls’ desire to participate in sports and try new things when given the opportunity.
An amazing show of public support guaranteed that we were ready to go by our programming start date of May 28, just eight weeks after launching Girls Run Global publicly! Contributions of all sizes enabled us to provide each of the seventy girls with their own pair of new or like-new running shoes, four pairs of running socks, a sports bra, a water bottle, pre-run nutrition, a Training Log + Planner, and a custom Girls Run Global backpack to keep their running equipment safe. All in all, we brought 115 pairs of shoes (to ensure each girl had the right size and fit), over 300 pairs of socks, 1,000+ granola bars, and more.
Upon arrival with three incredible volunteers and twelve duffle bags of gear, we were instantly impressed by how welcoming everyone was. We felt right at home by the end of our first night at SEGA.
Our twelve days with the girls typically featured two daily sessions. From 5:30 am to 6:30/7 am, formal running practices included a warm-up and main running workout. We began and ended practice with a check-in/out sheet where girls evaluated how they felt (mentally and physically) before and after running on a scale of 1-10. Our hope was that girls would notice that running often makes us feel more focused and energized. Excitingly, following programming, we determined that girls’ scores went up an average of 2.1 points after running each day!
Our afternoon learning sessions featured guest speakers, skills worksheets, activities, and games. Girls became prouder with confidence-building activities and worksheets, learned how to set S.M.A.R.T goals, and improved their sense of community with their teammates through meaningful conversations. We welcomed professional runners as mentors and virtual guest speakers, including 3x Burundian Olympic runner Diane Nukuri, World Champion Mountain Runner Grayson Murphy, and professional runner (and chair of the Girls Run Global board of directors) Rebecca Mehra. Most importantly, both the morning and afternoon sessions never failed to be an absolute blast! On the first-ever International Day of Play, it is essential to recognize that fun and play are key ingredients in promoting success in sport and life.
I am excited and honored to share that the team launch was wildly successful. From easy group runs filled with song, to joining my mid-day solo run after practice, the girls at SEGA really took to the sport. Some girls may have been faster, and some might have enjoyed the sport more, but the beauty is that every girl showed up, gave their all, and finished feeling proud. An incredible 97% of the team planned to continue running after Girls Run Global leaders left, and when asked to rate their enjoyment of the sport on a scale of 1-10, the average answer amongst the seventy girls was 9.8. Aside from the running itself, 100% of girls’ said that running during programming improved their self-confidence. 90% of girls said their leadership skills improved, 92% developed deeper connections with their teammates, and all but three girls noticed they felt more focused and energized in school following morning runs. Without the girls’ openness, hard work, and ambition, the team launch would have been nowhere near as successful as it was. I left the school a few days ago, confident that the team will thrive under the leadership of student captains as we support from afar.
Looking back on my two weeks at SEGA, I will say that the girls there are some of the most impressive individuals I have met. The connections I could form with them made saying goodbye harder than I could have imagined, but it made me much more excited to return. On International Day of Play and in celebration of the new Girls Run Global running team at SEGA, I am committing to creating more opportunities for girls everywhere to play, run, and change the world.
Maya Mor was spotlighted in a PEOPLE Magazine article featuring Girls Run Global, with a special mention of SEGA Girls’ School as their first-ever partnership. Click here to read more.