In the Bills Healthy Zone Fieldhouse the athletes are typically of the professional variety and average 250 pounds. The only thing that amounted to 250 in the Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon was the number of 9-12-year old girls who were participating in the annual WNY Girls in Sports program spearheaded by event chairperson Mary Wilson.
With the help of 100 area volunteers from local universities and athletic clubs, the WNY Girls in Sports Clinic provided more than a half dozen interactive stations where the young girls could participate and learn about several different sports and health related issues.
"Introducing different sports to young girls is a great way to help them become active, healthy and more aware of the possible activities they can pursue as they grow up," said Wilson. "The WNY Girls in Sports clinic has been going strong for eight years, has touched well over 1,000 lives and we are particularly happy with the volunteer and student interaction that helps showcase the individual sports."
A special presentation was also made by the WNY Flash women's professional soccer club, as a few of their player spoke about the benefits of athletics, a healthy lifestyle and working hard to achieve goals both on and off the playing field.
"We are introducing sports to these girls now, and hope they make good choices and get involved with a sport that can help them grow as young ladies," said Wilson.
Making the Sports Clinic possible was the generous support of the United Way, Buffalo Public Schools and the Girl Scout Council of WNY. Those young girls that participated were chosen from 10 different "Closing the Gap" schools.
