Pam Hess, Nancy Smith and Jennifer Bleiweis making a difference in the lives of your girls.
By Kendal Norris | Footstone Photography
Three women – each passionate about all-around health and fitness – have combined their education, talents and energies to make a difference in the lives of Gainesville area pre-teen girls. Haile residents Pam Hess, Nancy Smith and Jennifer Bleiweis are all coaches and staff for the non-profit after-school program, Girls on the Run, founded and organized by Molly Barker in North Carolina in 1996. The program was designed to help third to fifth-grade girls build life skills and positive core values through interactive and cooperative (as opposed to competitive) group activities – specifically running. Girls on the Run promotes physical activity, self-awareness, socialization, teamwork and responsibility. It also embraces optimism, gratitude and joy as tools for creating a fulfilling and balanced life.
Pam Hess, currently the Director of Business and Communtiy Outreach for the program, grew up in a military family that relocated frequently, both nationally and internationally. She came to Gainesville to attend St. Leo’s University and graduated in 1998 with a B.S. in Healthcare Administration. Pam was working at UF&Shands when she met her future husband, Philip Hess, who was in medical school. They married in 1999 and have two children, Megan, 11 and Philip, 9. As Pam recalled, “I’d heard about the program through an acquaintance and enrolled my daughter in one of the curriculums. She absolutely loved it and went back a second time. So she ended up being one of the biggest inspirations for me to become involved as a coach and to bring Girls on the Run to Gainesville.
A runner herself and currently a Pilates teacher, Pam Hess went to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2008 with friend Jennifer Bleiweis to become a certified coach for Girls on the Run. Pam said, “Afterward, it took about a year of planning and logistics to get funding and support and sites for the program. We were given incredibly generous help by the Gainesville Community Foundation, who took us under their wing and assisted us with administrative tasks, funding and valuable community contacts.” The Gainesville Community Foundation is the fiscal agent for Girls on the Run and allows the program to operate as an affiliate non-profit. “We couldn’t have accomplished what we’ve been able to without them,” Pam commented.
Girls on the Run programs are typically presented at elementary school campuses, Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCAs. Currently Gainesville has six different sites available and features two programs a year – one in the spring and one in the fall. As Pam noted, “Young girls typically go in and out of levels of confidence in their pre-teen years. Depending on what’s happening in their lives, they can be extremely vulnerable. Our program gives them a chance to work on the whole person – heart, mind and body. Its aim is to empower them, to give them a voice and tools for handling challenges, coping with others and making good choices.” She added, “And I’ve grown personally from my work with these girls. It’s revealed ways for me to make improvements in my own life. Being involved with strong, loving women, who are the ‘spine’ of the program, has re-enforced my belief in the importance of teamwork.”
Nancy Smith, now the Executive Director of Girls on the Run in Gainesville, is a California native who grew up in the Midwest, and has always been interested in what makes people tick. Majoring in psychology at Western Michigan University, she graduated in 1982 with a B.S. degree. It was also in Michigan that she met her future husband, David, who was working on his PhD in Psychology at the University of Michigan. They were married in 1987 and the couple spent 13 years in North Carolina where David was working in the Department of Surgery at Duke University. Nancy did behavioral research work in the early years of their marriage until two children came along while they were living in Toronto, Canada.
Nancy said, “Our son Tait is 22 now and our son Chandler is 20. Both are attending college out of state. But when they were in pre-school I decided to become a pre-school teacher and did that for 15 years. After we moved to Gainesville in 2004 when David earned an academic appointment at UF, I continued to teach. That’s how I met Pam who was an instructor at the same school.”
They also learned that they were neighbors and fellow runners. While preparing for the 2010 Five Points of Light half marathon, Nancy was looking for a local volunteering opportunity. She recalled, “At the pre-race, Pam and Jennifer had set up a promotional table for Girls on the Run. And then everything clicked into place. I began coach training with them and jumped into the pilot season in February 2010 as an assistant coach.”
One of the aspects of Girls on the Run that Nancy enjoys most is the community activity in which the girls choose a way to participate in giving to others. She said, “Last spring the girls made an activity/treat basket for children in the Pediatric Ward at Shands Hospital. They put in stickers and coloring materials and get-well cards and then delivered them. It was extremely rewarding.” Nancy also loves the interactive nature of the program, which involves writing, conversation and short runs building up to longer ones. “The girls become comfortable sharing their thoughts and exploring ideas. A comfort level is established where group support is more important than competition. We urge them to stop, breathe and listen to their inner voice, so that they develop positive ways of communicating, as well as increasing physical strength.”
Haile resident Jennifer Bleiweis is another Gainesville transplant who grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia and earned her B.S. degree in Dietetics in 1987 from the University of Georgia. She remembered, “When I had to do my one-year accreditation program, I decided to go to San Diego, California where there was an internship at the VA Hospital. I’d never been out of Georgia and decided to have an adventure of sorts. It was there I met my husband, Mark, who was in medical school.” They married in 1989 and after passing her boards, Jennifer took a job as a Dietitian at a San Diego community hospital.
She said, “Over the next 11 years, we moved five times across the country because my husband was doing extended surgical training that would eventually prepare him for his present position as Pediatric Heart Surgeon and head of the Congenital Heart Center at Shands. We also spent time in Chapel Hill, North Carolina when Mark was doing further training. Along the way we had three children, Samantha, now 19, Max, 16, and Jack, 11.”
It was at Chapel Hill in 2001 that Jennifer first heard about a one-week summer camp program called Girls on the Run. She enrolled daughter Samantha, who absolutely loved the experience. Jennifer said, “When we moved to Gainesville and I met Pam and Nancy, I began to see the commonality of all of our interests and experiences – plus the fact that we’d all heard about the program and had that ‘North Carolina connection.’ I truly believe there are no accidents!” Jennifer now serves as Program Director for Girls on the Run in Gainesville.
Together these three remarkable women – who are hard-working mothers and accomplished professionals in their own right – have donated time, energy and resources over the past 18 months to deliver Girls on the Run to those who’ll benefit most from it. This past season there were 44 enrolled at four sites and so far they’ve coached a total of 130 girls in six different sites throughout Alachua County. As Nancy Smith stated, “It’s still a fairly new program in the community, but word is spreading and parental support is building. And we’re getting a number of calls from teachers, school staff and principals who want to get involved. So it looks like we’ll be adding at least three new sites for the spring 2012 season.”
In a culture where false values and sometimes cruelly unhealthy images permeate the media, Girls on the Run presents a much-needed, uplifting antidote. By helping to instill positive attitudes, coping skills, physical strength and community spirit in young females, it’s a program that merits respect and appreciation. But none of this would have been possible in the Gainesville area without the skill, dedication and devoted efforts of women like Pam Hess, Nancy Smith and Jennifer Bleiweis.
Learn. Enroll. Volunteer.
For more information about the program, current locations, enrolling and volunteering, visit www.alachuagotr.org. To contact the Girls on the Run program in Gainesville directly, email girlsgottarun@hotmail.com or call (352) 375-2610.
To learn more about the Gainesville Community Foundation, visit www.gnvcf.org or call 352.367.0060
