Georgia Ross smiled at her dad behind the camera as he hit the record button. Before her sat a music stand and a pile of sheet music. “Okay,” she said, “this is for Girls on the Run, and I guess Britney inspired me to do this song… so yeah.” Then, the nine-year-old girl launched into a self-written tune that would be played at countless coach training sessions, banquets and other Girls on the Run Minnesota events over the next decade.

Georgia (right) poses with Dr. Stephanie Burrage, Former Justice Helen Meyer and Dr. Leslie Hitchens.

It all started when Ross was a young girl going on runs with her mom, Julie Duckstad. They would go on runs down Summit Ave. every weekend, passing the time by talking about any number of topics, and Ross slowly became a better runner. 

Then, GOTR came along. Ross first learned about GOTR in second grade but had to wait until third grade to join. Prior to participating in the program, she’d had somewhat of a hard time making friends at her school. GOTR helped change that. Every day at practice, she felt a little more comfortable talking to the girl next to her, and before she knew it, bonds had formed. 

“[GOTR] added a few more social avenues for me that helped me feel like I belonged at [St. Paul Academy],” she said. “It was a great way for me to make friends.” 

Ross saw both her relationships with her peers and her parents benefit from participating in the program. At the end-of-season 5K race, Duckstad ran alongside Ross as her 5K Buddy, and the two crossed the finish line together as her father cheered them on. 

“I felt so excited that I could make her proud and show her that I could run a 5K for the first time,” Ross said. “Having her run alongside me was a tremendous gift and memory, I think, for both of us.”

The famous song had come about just weeks before the season ended. Ross had recently begun playing ukulele and trying her hand at songwriting. For her, writing music was a way to show her appreciation for how GOTR was changing her life. 

“Even when I wasn’t at practice, I was thinking about the things going at practice,” she said. “I was thinking about my coaches and the connections I made there.” 

The lyrics came to her in bits and pieces while she was going about her day. 

“I did not have a very organized way of going about it,” she said. “It would come to me, and I would drop everything, run upstairs as fast as I could, grab a piece of printer paper and a pen, and I would write out what I wanted to remember.”

While the writing process was somewhat discombobulated, one thing was clear:

“The most important part of the song that I wanted to center everything around was ‘Girls on the Run is so much fun,” Ross said. “I liked how catchy it was, and I liked how true but simple it was––so I made that my chorus.”

To build out the rest of the song, Ross decided that she wanted to highlight her coaches’ characteristics.

“The next best thing that came to mind [were] my coaches and how grateful I was for them,” she said. “I wanted to show appreciation for the people that were making my life better.”

After she completed the song, Ross raced downstairs to play it for her dad, who was in the midst of making dinner. When she had finished singing, he said, “Georgia, that is amazing,” and he insisted that they record it right then and there. 

“He loved it, and he more so thought that my coaches would really appreciate seeing that they were making a direct impact on me and my thoughts and my life,” she said. “So he sent it to them.” 

Georgia performs at the 2023 Limitless Potential Luncheon

From there, the video took off, making its way into the Girls on the Run Minnesota office. Soon afterwards, Ross was requested to perform at the GOTR annual banquet, a tradition that continued on for several years. Now a senior at St. Paul Academy, Ross continues to hold a deep appreciation for the GOTR program and its curriculum. 

“It’s a real privilege to have had GOTR growing up,” she said. “When I’ve talked to my mom or grandma or other older women in my life, they also talk about how they didn’t grow up with anything like that.” 

Ross has also begun giving back to the organization that impacted her so profoundly, sitting as the youngest member of the Girls on the Run Minnesota Board of Directors. She works on the finance committee, ensuring that the program stays on track with its planned goals each fiscal year and making decisions on where to allocate funds. But, most importantly, Ross has had the opportunity to network with adults in a professional environment, which has aided her as she begins to consider various career interests and options. 

“It’s opened a lot of doors for me, whether it be another place to share my music… meeting new friends, new adults, new mentors,” she said. “It’s been immensely important in shaping me as a person, and I’m very grateful for it.”

Girls on the Run is So Much Fun

by Georgia Ross

Girls on the Run is so much fun!

Girls on the Run is so much fun!

You get to run

I say, run

You get to run while having fun!

You get to run 

I say, run, 

You get to run while having fun!

Isn’t that so a-awesome?

Isn’t that so awesome?

Isn’t that so a-a-a-awesome?

Who plans all this awesomeness? 

Who plans all this awesomeness?

Who who who who who who plans all this

A-a-a-a-awesomeness?

Virginia, Angela, and Brittney!

Virginia, Angela, and Brittney!

Virginia, Angela, and Brittney!

Virginia, Angela, and Brittney!

Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome

Like, like, like, like 

Like a possum!

Georgia (2nd from right in back row) volunteers in the Girls on the Run Minnesota office with St. Paul Academy's HerSpace group