Empowering Youth: Cooperstown’s Track and Field Programs Mentor and Restore Community Spaces

Josie Rusk, the Girls Varsity Track and Field Coach at Cooperstown, has been actively involved in a partnership with the Elementary School’s Girls on the Run program since 2016. Each Wednesday, from April until the Girls on the Run 5k event, she mentors the Girls On The Run athletes, guiding 24 girls in the program.

This year, the boys’ program under her coordination is making a significant contribution as well. It supports the efforts of one of the athletes, Elias MacLeish, and a teacher, Erik Hansen, in restoring the school’s LaCava Nature Center. They dedicate an hour every Wednesday to this project, with 32 boys participating in the initiative.