Registration is underway for the spring season of the Girls on the Run Lancaster-Lebanon.

Girls on the Run (GOTR) is an organization for girls in third through eighth grades. "We have our Girls on the Run curriculum, which is third through fifth grades, and we have our Heart and Sole curriculum, which is for girls in sixth through eighth grades," said program director Kylie Homan. "Girls should register because we are a program that utilizes a research-based curriculum to support girls in understanding their emotions, fostering friendships, and expressing empathy."

Homan prefers that girls register by the start of the season on Monday, March 9. Sign-ups will close on Saturday, March 14. Go to http://www.gotrlancasterlebanon.org to sign up or for additional information.

There is a standard fee to participate in GOTR, but there is some flexibility. "We emphasize families pay what they can given their current circumstances," said Homan. "We want to make sure that our program is accessible to girls and that there's no barriers for anybody to participate. There are no forms, no applications to fill out. Their selection of financial assistance is just part of the registration process, and they have the opportunity to select their payment amount."

The fee includes the cost of training coaches, the curriculum for Girls on the Run International, and all of the lesson materials that are provided to the coaches. Girls receive a take-home journal with activities to do and also get an official GOTR T-shirt and a season gift. The 5K registration and the medal they receive at the 5K are also included in the price.

"The name is Girls on the Run, but it's about so much more," said Jessica Wilson, who is the program and 5K manager. "It's really about encouraging girls to move forward at whatever their pace may be. We have girls that run. We have girls that walk. We have girls that skip. We have girls that roll in their wheelchairs at practices. We just encourage all of those movements and just encourage them to keep moving forward."

Previous participants might notice a slight change in the program. "We are super excited this spring will be the first season in which we're starting the use of a new curriculum, which has been rolled out from Girls on the Run International, and it is called Hello Bold Heart," said Homan. "It is all about giving girls the opportunity to discover their heart power and developing the confidence to boldly share what is in their heart and help others use their voice too."

Homan added, "The curriculum does a really great job of integrating the physical movement with the learning components. It's a lot of tandem learning when it comes to the physical activity. The girls don't always realize that they're running and they're doing the physical activity because they're doing so much learning along with it."

GOTR is seeking coaches who will operate chapters out of schools. "For the spring season, we will need approximately 300 to 350 volunteer coaches to support the teams across Lancaster and Lebanon (counties)," said Homan, adding that there are coaching opportunities for males, females, and high school-age girls.

"We encourage anybody to come out to be a coach," Homan said. "We have coaches in their 70s, and you don't need to be a runner. You don't need to have coaching experience. We have a lot of coaches that come in who are teachers, but we have coaches that are just community members looking for a place to give back and to support the community in this way."

GOTR prepares the coaches. "All of our coaches receive a very structured coach training experience that gives them the foundation and the resources to be able to coach successfully for throughout the season," said Homan. "And then coaches are always given support throughout the season from our council."

Anyone interested in volunteering can visit the website or email Wilson at jwilson@gotrlancaster.org or Homan at khoman@gotrlancaster.org.

The goal is to have a GOTR program in every school district in Lancaster and Lebanon counties. "We're working towards that," said Homan.

The spring season will conclude with a 5K that will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 16. It will be held at for the first time at Greenfield, 1581 William Penn Way, Lancaster. The event is open to the public. It is designed as a fun run and is not chip-timed. "We need hundreds of volunteers in order for the 5K to be a safe and successful day," said Homan.

At the end of the season, the girls engage in a community impact project, which is their opportunity to give back to the community that is important to them.

"The new curriculums that we've been using are really emphasizing that a small act can make a big impact," said Homan. "It gets the girls to think on a smaller scale about how they can really do something that's important, but it doesn't have to be grandiose."