Stories And Inspiration

Kids ages 5 to 13 come to GO FAR at the Mary Perry Ragsdale Family YMCA wearing running shoes and comfortable clothes. It may not be the kind of club where you’d expect to listen to a guest speaker, but that’s just the kind of motivation Ragsdale Wellness Director Marlee Rindal strives for.

The club meets during the school year to train for a December Reindeer Romp at the Ragsdale YMCA and the spring Triad GO FAR family event. During that time, Rindal, who runs the Ragsdale Y GO FAR program, invites speakers to inspire her crew of about 75 kids from schools in the surrounding area.

This past school year, members of the Ragsdale High School track team warmed up with the kids and described how being an athlete is a lot of work. But, they said, it’s worth it. Rindal said the GO FAR kids saw that the track team members weren’t much older than them and that being an athlete was feasible.

Having speakers helps the kids identify with all aspects of being an athlete. “I think speakers and groups coming in help the kids see the real value in what we do. They take all the things we talk about daily in lessons or during our runs and make them come to life,” Rindal said. “For [other athletes] to say, ‘It’s not always my favorite but I love what I get from it,’ the kids get it.”

One athlete brought the kids a new perspective on ability and being an athlete. When Mike Atkins visited the GO FAR group in his wheelchair, he described the car accident responsible for the loss of the use of his legs. He told the kids there isn’t much he can’t do. He still plays soccer and other sports.

“The kids just had a whole new meaning of what it meant to have a disability, but it didn’t change what he could do,” Rindal said. “Things are going to happen in life but it doesn’t have to keep you from moving.”

An ROTC member of Winston-Salem State University brought cadets who taught the kids to run in formation and the importance of being physically fit on the job. The group discussed what careers may require physical aptitude—firefighter, police officer, and construction worker, for example.

Rindal also invited the students’ parents to come to practice for a day, helping them make connections. “The day their parents came out was a highlight because they were actually doing the activity with them,” she said. “Their parents are usually on the sidelines.”

Rindal said that after four years of leading GO FAR, she’s found that being creative and using motivation have helped keep the kids on track. She and the other coaches, who are parent volunteers, award charms at each practice for things like leadership, sportsmanship, and effort. Some practice days, though very few, the coaches have seen nothing worthy of an award. One person’s negative attitude proved infectious. It was a lesson learned.

Other motivators have involved giving the kids a little power over the coaches. During practice if the kids take more than one minute to gather for warm-ups, the kids have to do push-ups. If they take less than a minute, the coaches do push-ups. The kids love the role reversal.

“It’s the structure and the little things that you do on a consistent basis that the kids love,” Rindal said.