(Vermillion) The "Girls on the Run" program is aimed at developing pre-teen girls in a positive way by introducing them to running.
USD senior track and field athlete Alexa Duling wanted to bring the program to the Rosebud Indian Resevervation near her hometown of Gregory.
And she got it done.
Alexa Duling does a lot of running, as a member of the Coyote track and field team. She's also a pre-med student who spent time working in the hospital at the Rosebud Indian Reservation...
Alexa Duling/USD Track & Field "The experience on the reservation sold me. That's the career I want, to be a physician on the resevation."
While there, she ran into a young girl who didn't have much to do in the summer months.
Duling "One thing that really stuck out to me is she told me she was incredibly bored during the summer. The only thing she had to do was go swimming at the dam."
During her sophmore year, Duling was a volunteer with the Vermillion chapter of "Girls on the Run". She came up with a plan to bring the program to Rosebud, but was told by the regional and national coordinators that it would never work.
Duling "I called her more times than I can count, and I know there was sometimes where she didn't want to answer the line because she knew it was me on the other line."
But her persistence paid off, and Duling created the first summer program of "Girls on the Run" ever in Rosebud. After the full 10 weeks, the group even did a 5k run.
Duling "This was the most special moment of the whole entire program. We had several girls run ahead and ran the whole 5k. But the rest of the group stayed together in a pack. That just showed me how they had come to value team work."
Along with the other values to help these girls grow up healthy.
Duling "Just bringing them running and showing all the great things running had to give and all the things you can learn from running, it's been unbelievable."
Duling was the Great West Conference female scholar of the year.
She was a national qualifier in the 400 meter hurdles last year.
