Relaying culture

A group of Mountain Brook girls are forming friendships with girls in Kenya this spring, but they didn’t have to get on a plane to do so. 

Starting in February, around 20 eighth and ninth graders at Mountain Brook Junior High are participating in Culture Relay, a cross-cultural running program that is partnering with Moi Girls School in Nairobi, Kenya. As the Mountain Brook girls were coming back from Christmas, the Nairobi girls were starting their school year. 

“It’s great for our kids to get involved not only from running standpoint but also that they get to draw relationships during the school day over Skype with kids in other countries,” said teacher Brook Gibbons, who is leading the Relay group.

Gibbons learned about Culture Relay last spring when her daughter Hannah participated in its pilot program at Homewood High School. Knowing that the junior high had recently added a weekly Spartan club period, Gibbons thought Culture Relay would be a good fit for some of her students.

“It’s a great way on a virtual level to discuss what’s going on in the female world and how you are going to be an empowered female,” she said.

Over the course of eight weeks, the groups at both schools are interacting through Skype as a class, and each student is assigned a one-on-one virtual pen pal to get to know. 

In addition, the girls are coming before school twice a week to train for a race with another MBJH teacher, Brittney Wilson. The girls are at different levels of athletic experience; some have never run before. 

At the end of the program, all the  girls in both countries will run a 5K. During their club time the Mountain Brook students are planning their own course with plans for the money they raise to go to Culture Relay. Gibbons said they are considering doing a color run.

“It’s really up to the girls,” she said. “They decide what their project is going to be.”

This spring simultaneous Culture Relay programs are connecting American girls, including a group from Woodlawn High School, with girls around their age in Chile, Belize and Honduras.

Tracey Abbot, a five-time marathon finisher who founded Culture Relay as a part of her participation in the Aspen Institute, ran the pilot program but now has trained facilitators like Gibbons to lead the curriculum she tested last year. Although she is now a New York resident, Abbott grew up in Birmingham and travels back often to administer the program and see her mom.

“It’s meant to teach that the virtual world can still have interaction in it, that you can form relationships without physical contact,” Abbott said. “It’s about understanding a lot can be accomplished with technology.”

Abbott said she is particularly excited about programs in Central America.

“Girls programs really don’t exist there,” she said. “It’s really resonating with the women there because it’s all about the boys.”

In the future, Abbott hopes to form a larger Culture Relay race in Birmingham as she fosters relationships with international schools that she hopes will continue in the long term.

As Abbott will tell you, Culture Relay isn’t necessarily about running. It’s about connecting cultures through running.

To learn more, visit culturerelay.org.