Page 54 - BusinessWest October 28, 2024

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Berman
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to overstate the mental-health issues among young people right now.
“Over the past decade, mental-health concerns among youth have escalated, with a notable increase in anxiety, stress, feelings of fear, and isolation. This crisis disproportionately affects girls. At the same time, schools were having to cut back on physical education and social-emotional learning,” she wrote. “Girls on the Run works to negate mental-health risk factors among girls.”
And it doesn’t happen in a vacuum, she added, but is the result of purposeful, compassionate leadership.
“Alison has fostered relationships with school principals and staff, who are an integral part of making the program possible,” she went on. “She works closely with coaches to make sure they feel supported and appreciated — they are the backbone of the program. Girls on the Run inspires girls to build lives
of purpose and to make a meaningful contribution
to society. I can’t think of anyone more capable of modeling this than Alison.”
At the same time, the program budget has increased to $432,000, derived from a variety
of funding sources. In 2023, GOTR Western Massachusetts served 1,800 girls and provided more than $130,000 in need-based scholarships, roughly 30% of its budget.
“Alison makes sure that no girl is turned away from the program based on financial need,” Queenin wrote. “Her enthusiasm and genuine compassion inspire others to get behind the program and invest in its success.”
It’s a program that has certainly caught on and steadily grown nationwide; data from a national spring 2024 end-of-season survey of coaches, participants, and families showed that 95% of girls reported feeling more confident, and 92% of girls said they learned things at GOTR to help deal with strong emotions.
Life Lessons
Teachers have definitely noticed, which may explain
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kids.
why they make up the vast majority of volunteers in the GOTR Western Mass. council.
“They’re doing this volunteering after they’ve spent a long day in the classroom, because, I think, they
get to know the kids in a different way and have a different relationship, but also they see the impacts in their own classrooms,” Berman said. “And principals have told us that they see it reshaping the culture of their school as well. Parents are more involved, and attendance goes up with those kids.”
This aspect of the program — that rippling impact, as it were — delights Berman.
“When we started it, we never realized the impact it would have beyond the girls,” she said. “So when we see the impact on families and schools, I’m amazed
by that. I see it as like this web that’s spread out around Western Mass., with the impact it’s had on the coaches and parents and schools.”
Communities are impacted as well; as noted earlier, a big piece of the curriculum is a project where each team does something to give back to their community.
“The Humane Society just gave us an award. We have girls giving to animal shelters or cleaning up their schools, planting gardens, writing notes to veterans. It’s up to the kids to decide, and part of that lesson is learning about compromise and figuring out what’s needed in their community. It’s seeing beyond themselves.”
Girls on the Run continues to see further opportunities as well, like a summer camp that
“Women are good listeners, and we need ”to have their voices heard.
important. I truly feel that, if women had been more involved in national and global issues, we would not be in the state we’re in globally.
“Women are good listeners, and we need to have their voices heard,” she went on. “And I’m so happy to say they are being heard, but there is still room for growth.”
On UMass Amherst, another institution she strongly supports, she told BusinessWest, “there is so much
essentially adds a third season to the annual programming. “It’s growing slowly, but we had about 40 girls this summer in camp. And they loved it,” Berman said. “Again, our coaches volunteer to come back and do that, which also shows how much they love the program.”
Much of this success builds on early efforts by Berman to get the local council going, Queenin noted. “While the mission of Girls on the Run resonated deeply with Alison, starting a nonprofit organization from the ground up is no easy feat. Working for the first year without pay, Alison assembled a board of directors and drew on their expertise and connections to chart a course. She fundraised enough money from interested community members to attend training and secure the requisite license to create a council. She had to learn many new skills, from fundraising and budgeting to training and vetting volunteer coaches, all in real time.”
And now, GOTR Western Massachusetts has
served more than 10,000 participants. With many alums now graduating from high school, the council started a scholarship program to support their further education. “That’s exciting, being able to help support kids to keep going,” Berman said. “And when we had teens apply for the scholarship program last year, they talked about the impact that it had on them.”
That impact has extended, in many cases, to continued athletic endeavors in high school and college, she noted. “Many of them talked about the impact of the values that they learned from Girls on the Run about helping others and giving back to their community.”
So it’s about much more than running, she said, but that end-of-season 5K is still inspiring.
“It brings tears to your eyes. It’s not timed; it’s not about who can run fast, and families show up with their entire extended family, sometimes wearing matching shirts, to support their kid. Parents who’ve never walked three miles are out there walking three miles, so it’s a ripple effect of getting families outside as well. That’s awesome.” BW
growth potential.”
On the merits of exercise and staying active,
especially for people her age (which she did not reveal), she said, “I gave myself a gift ... I don’t know how long ago, maybe 30 or 40 years ago, of an hour of exercise a day, and I’ve really lived up to it. I’ll bet I haven’t missed 10 days over that whole time.”
That activity has included yoga, Pilates, skiing, walking, running, biking, swimming, and more. “I swim in the summer,” she said. “I’m going to have to start doing it year-round because it’s such good exercise, but I don’t like it; I’m not a good swimmer.”
Then, of course, she has opinions on this region. And here, again, she doesn’t mince words.
“I think it’s a fabulous place to live, a fabulous
place to raise a family ... we’re so ideally located geographically, and I don’t think we’ve ever maximized that,” she said. “I think that is still to come, and it will come. We have so many cultural advantages that most small cities don’t have, we have so many educational advantages ... the sky is the limit for this region.”
As we said at the top, Fuller Doherty is certainly
a cheerleader for this region. But she is much more than that. She’s a leader who makes sure her voice is heard, while also making sure other women’s voices are heard.
In short, she’s a Woman of Impact. BW BusinessWest
Principals have told us that
they see it reshaping the culture of their school as well. Parents are more involved, and atten”dance goes up with those
Fuller Doherty
region, and I totally believe in the region; we are a regional economy.”
Giving Voice to Others —
and Using Hers
One of Fuller Doherty’s many contributions to
this region, and an example of her lifelong focus on women and helping them succeed in work and in life, was her involvement in the creation of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts.
This is an agency that is, well, a lot like her. It supports women, it educates them, it mentors them, and it promotes them.
Scanning the horizon, Fuller Doherty noted that, while there is some work to be done when it comes to women advancing and breaking through whatever glass ceilings remain — she said the corporate boardroom is one of them — she’s proud of what has been accomplished.
“The Women’s Fund has played a small role in elevating the voices of women,” she said. “I’ve watched the boards — not just the nonprofit boards, which have always done their part for women, but some of the for-profit boards as well — recognize the value and importance of having women on them. That in itself — just having women’s voices heard — is so
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While Fuller Doherty has always been involved, and has always had an impact, she has also never been shy about using her own voice and expressing opinions on a wide range of topics.
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