WILTON – The Fit Girls Of Wilton, Maine nonprofit has served the local community for over a decade. The nonprofit’s mission to promote healthy bodies, healthy hearts, and healthy minds through running, reading, and caring, has supported countless girls to build self-confidence and wholesome habits, serving them for years to come.
Data collected through the efforts of the Healthy Community Coalition includes the Franklin County Health Profile, part of the Maine Shared Community Health Assessment. The full report accessed here, provides evidence for an increase in high school and adult obesity, decrease in physical activity, increase in diabetes, and increase in poor mental health in Franklin County. In order to better effect positive change for the overall health of our community, Fit Girls has tailored their vision to include the following:
1. Outdoor access for all. Fit Girls is an inclusive organization where all abilities are welcome. Mainers know and appreciate the inherent value of time spent outside. Fit Girls supports this aim by spending time moving outdoors.
2. Holistic health and wellness education and mentoring. A longtime strength of the Fit Girls program is the leadership and mentorship of its volunteer coaches. As longtime advocates and role models, the coaches help support and develop the overall wellbeing of each girl.
3. Respect and kindness for ourselves, each other, and the environment.
4. Increasing fruit and vegetable intake while encouraging connection to gardening and the land.
5. Giving back to outdoor spaces and serving the natural world surrounding local schools. This fall, Fit Girls planted 250 daffodil bulbs at their elementary schools, Academy Hill and Cascade Brook.
In promoting movement and nourishment education and access, Fit Girls serves as a primary prevention program in Franklin County that seeks to contribute towards the whole health of each individual girl, and through their individual impact, the community at large. The Fit Girl’s vision is thus, that girls feel empowered to be themselves, make healthful choices for their bodies in relationship with nature, and connect the message of taking care of themselves, each other, and the earth.
Fit Girls is offered to students and their families at no cost. This is made possible thanks to a grant from the Onion Foundation and donations from their sponsors. This year Fit Girls is grateful to Bangor Savings Bank, Franklin Savings Bank, E.L. Vining, Jocko Fuel, Kyes Insurance, Tyngtown Club of Wilton, Wilton Lions Club, and individual donations from generous community members. All donations can be made to Fit Girls PO Box 493 Wilton, Maine 04294 or online at fitgirlsofwiltonmaine.org.
