Cradle Cincinnati Supports the Cincinnati Chapter of Black Girls RUN!
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4 out of 5 African American women are overweight or obese in the United States. For Toni Carey and Ashely Hicks-Rocha, co-founders of Black Girls RUN!, this statistic was simply unacceptable. Toni and Ashely founded Black Girls RUN!, a national women’s running group, in 2009 with the mission to encourage African American women to make fitness and healthy living a priority. With 160,000 members and growing, Black Girls RUN! aspires to take a comprehensive and creative approach to improve the health of women of color.Active and healthy lifestyles are the foundation of happy, healthy pregnancies. Studies show that not only does maintaining an active lifestyle improve maternal health during pregnancy, it can also reduce the risk of birth defects, suboptimal fetal growth and development, and chronic health problems in our babies.2 That’s why Cradle Cincinnati is supporting the Cincinnati Chapter of Black Girls RUN! during this year’s Flying Pig Marathon.Join us at the Flying Pig Marathon (April 29-May 1) as we cheer on the fierce women of Black Girls RUN!, many of whom are running their first race. Volunteers will help by directing runners as Course Monitors and hosting a fluid station. Sign up to volunteer with us here. For more information on Black Girl’s RUN!, visit their website.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Health, United States, 2012. Healthy Weight, Overweight, and Obesity among Adults Aged 20 and Over, by Selected Characteristics: United States, Selected Years 1960–1962 through 2007–2010, Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus12.pdf
- Kaiser, L. L. (2008). Position of the American Dietetic Association: Nutrition and Lifestyle for a Healthy Pregnancy Outcome. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108(3), 553-561.