A Woman on the Run:
Shari Kunz
By JODY ZARKOS
Express Staff Writer
When most of us look back on ourselves in high schools, it is like looking into a fun house mirror.
While you recognize the reflec-tion, it is also alien and distorted.
When Shari Kunz looks back she giggles.
?I was a hockey cheerleader. On skates,? she said.
It?s hard to imagine looking at the athletic, driven blonde sitting next to you that she spent her prep career cheering sports, rather than partici-pating in them, but it?s true.
?I wasn?t active at all. I didn?t do any school sports,? Kunz said.
That might be news to the hun-dreds of lives she has touched through founding the local chapter of the Girls on the Run program.
The nationwide program for girls ages 8-11 was started by Molly Barker in 1996. The crux of Girls on the Run is to educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living.
Currently, more than 14,000 girls in 100 communities in the U.S. and Canada participate in Girls on the Run.
Kunz began the Wood River Val-ley chapter after seeing an article in Runner?s World magazine in the summer of 2002.
?I read it on Father?s Day and I cried. I told Kyle (her husband) I had to do this. I called them up and by August we had the program going,? Kunz recalled.
Kicked off in the fall of 2002, Kunz?s first group consisted of 14 girls. By that spring the program had expanded to four groups with a total of 56 participants.
Now, in its third year, the local program attracts more than 200 girls a year.
Despite the name, Girls on the Run, is much more than a training group for runners.
Each six-week session, which meets twice per week, features a cur-riculum, which emphasizes self-esteem, communication, and commu-nity involvement.
?We are dedicated with getting girls out of the ?girl box,? which is a preoccupation with being liked and how they look,? Kunz said.
?It?s an interactive learning pro-gram and the girls are being healthy and active at the same time.
The program is run entirely by volunteers, including Jen Galpin-Mikesh, Michelle Willows-Lightner, Mary Ellen O?Leary, Carry George, Beth Rogers, Kim Fleutsch, Mary Kay Foley and Linda Hunter.
At the end of each six-week ses-sion participants and their friends and families run a 5K.
The advantages of being active are undeniable. People who exercise feel better about their lives, are healthier and happier.
According to statistics compiled by the Women?s Sports Foundation if girls are not active by age 10 there is only a 10 percent chance they will be active at age 25.
?There are some girls in the pro-gram who will never be jocks, but they can be out and be active in dif-ferent ways. It gives them confidence and a stronger sense of identity,? Kunz said.
Kunz has been an active part of the community since she moved here with her husband, Kyle, in 1989. The pair has three children, David, 18, Michael, 16, and Laura, 14.
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Minnesota, Kunz graduated from Brigham Young University in Utah with a degree in recreational management.
She and Kyle met while both were vacation guides in the Grand Tetons. The two married in 1981.
While Kunz did not start out as an athlete her children did. David is nationally-ranked snowboarder. He also ran cross-country at Wood River High School. Michael excels in three sports: snowboarding, soccer and tennis. Laura loves tennis, bike riding and swimming.
While the children?s athletic achievements were forged for fun and recreation, Kunz?s own odyssey into running was borne of personal neces-sity.
?My brother came down with cancer in 2000. He had lymphoma. I had to do something. I joined Team in Training which raises money for The Lymphoma and Leukemia Society. You train and run in a marathon and they provide the coach.?
Kunz completed the 2001 Portland Marathon with her brother, Paul, there to cheer her on.
?It was very cool,? she said.
With Paul?s health worsening, Kunz and her sister, Jeannie, ran the San Diego Marathon in his honor in June of 2002. Five months later, Paul passed away at age 40.
?He fought hard. He did chemo, radiation, two stem cell transplants. He went to Mexico. He tried every-thing,? she said.
In the midst of the turmoil and grief, Kunz started the Valley?s first Girls on the Run program and she, and it, has been off and running ever since.
We talked with Shari on Wednes-day.
JZ: How has running helped you in your own life?
SK: It?s my escape. It?s where I go to reconnect to life.
JZ: How often do you run?
SK: I try and get out four times a week. I don?t run for distance, I run for time. During the week I go for at least an hour. On weekends, probably an hour and a half to two hours.
JZ: What is your favorite run?
SK: Greenhorn. Anywhere out there. There are so many little trails. The dog I adopted from the Wood River Animal Shelter, Riley, was found out there. That?s not the reason it is my favorite, though.
JZ: What kind of running shoes do you like?
SK: Asics.
JZ: Do you have guilty pleasure
SK: Chocolate chip mint ice cream with Mrs. Richardson?s chocolate sauce and crushed soda crackers.
JZ: Soda crackers?
SH: I think it?s the combination of salt and sweet. The soda crackers are like crushed peanuts.
JZ: Do you think that girls of your daughter?s generation will have a different perception of themselves and what they are capable of than women of our era?
SK: Yes. I think they are growing up stronger. Our generation is aware of what kids our going through now. We are more active in giving kids the tools they need to cope.
JZ: How would have Girls on the Run made a difference in your life?
SK: I would have looked in the mirror and liked who I saw. That?s all I want for girls in the program. I want them to look in the mirror and like who they see. See the star inside. When they go to school, work or home, it?s not about what other people are doing or saying it?s just that they like who they are.
JZ: What is your proudest accom-plishment?
SK: Definitely my family. That is why I we get up in the morning, right?
JZ: By what tenets do you raise your children?
SK: Family is first. Love. I have a saying in my kitchen. ?Live well, laugh much, love often.? That about sums it up.
