A Mid-coast summer can mean many things to local high school girls. But for those without a driver’s license or access to a car, summer is just a long stretch of nothing much to do.

Seeds of Independence, a volunteer based organization based in Freeport, and Women’s Fitness Studio in Brunswick changed all that for six Brunswick High School girls this summer.

With classes that included yoga, Tai Chi, Zumba, and BodyPump, as well as nutrition, meditation and goal setting, the collaboration created a Girls Group Fitness program that’s credited with helping kids make better choices.

Willo Wright, program director of Seeds of Independence, said her group addresses juvenile delinquency and hopes to positively affect the school dropout rates at Freeport, Brunswick and Mt. Ararat high schools.

“I am so despairing that when school’s out there’s nothing for kids to do and girls are so disconnected from their bodies anyway. I wanted to create something that got them out of the house and off the cellphone,” Wright said while sitting at an umbrella table during an interview at Wild Oats in Brunswick last week.

To enroll, the first Girls Group Fitness participants needed either to earn a physical-education credit from BHS or to meet the requirements of court-ordered community service.

Wright coordinated with David Clock, a Region 1 Juvenile Community corrections officer; and Donna Borowick, then acting principal at BHS, to get in touch with girls who might be able to benefit from the program.

“I contacted Donna Borowick and she gave me five names of girls who needed PE credit. And I said to David, ‘Hey, I’ve got this program.’ And he had some girls,” Wright said.

Fast-talking and fit with shortcropped hair and the glint of a nose ring that refracted the noontime sunlight, Wright’s passion for creating opportunities for kids sparkled as she spoke.

“I’ve worked with kids my whole adult life,” she said, and in 2008, she and her husband, Tom, started Seeds of Independence.

“High school girls have such poor self-esteem and the media is all about sexy and skinny and I just felt like if they had two to three hours a week to actually be in their bodies, they might have a chance to go inside and ask themselves who they really are and what they really want to be,” Wright said.

Incentive

It wasn’t deep introspective work that led Jessica Asper, a 15-year-old BHS sophomore, to sign up.

It was the gym credit. And the community service.

In a phone interview, Asper said she turned to the program after being summonsed for possessing drug paraphernalia on school grounds. She spoke with The Times Record regarding her case with consent from her mother, Elizabeth Asper.

“I was at court, like, in March last year and I ran into Willo and (Wright) told me she was working on a program for the summer where I could do my community service and get credit for gym,” Asper said.

She and Wright met a year and a half ago when Asper did Jump Start, an eight-week court diversion program for first-time offenders administered by Seeds of Independence.

By the time Asper wound up in court again, Wright was already her mentor and friend.

“At first I was, like, ‘Yeah I’ll do this exercise thing if it takes care of my community service and I get credit for gym,’” Asper said. “But then I was just so happy to be there. I got there like 30 minutes before it started. I felt like I could just be myself and exercise.”

Asper was sentenced to 20 hours of community service to be completed by September. She ended up with 42 hours — and muscles she didn’t know she had.

“My goal was just to show up for the classes and not skip, like, PE. At the end, I realized I lost, like, 10 to 15 pounds. I had muscles in my arms,” she said.

A community effort

It took more than Wright’s enthusiasm and the Seeds of Independence mission to get Girls Group Fitness off the ground.

It also needed a partner in the community.

Kathleen Strickland, who owns Women’s Fitness Studio, listened to Wright’s vision and asked herself what young women really need.

“We can give them fitness. We do that every day,” Strickland said in a phone interview. “But we have so many great resources in our teachers and life coaches.”

The proposal she came back with addressed the unique needs of teenage girls with a full range of exercise classes and a roster of nutrition and mind/body workshops.

The cost? The $1,400 program cost covered the studio’s facility expenses and eight staff members who taught in the program for its sixweek duration.

There was no cost to the participants since Seeds of Independence was able to cover the expense with a community grant.

And support for program is growing at the studio.

“One of the exciting things was our older members watching the young girls come. They couldn’t believe the change in the girls and they started asking for ways they could support them.”

The success of the summer program led Seeds of Independence and Women’s Fitness Studio to commit to offering another round of Girls Group Fitness.

The program will run again for 12- weeks beginning Monday, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.

“The program is for any girls who want to do it, even if they don’t need gym credit or are not in the juvenile corrections system,” Wright said.

For Asper, there’s no doubt where she will be three afternoons a week.

“I want to be a major leader this time around.”