Since Pandemic Pause, Kilometer Kids Has Seen Soaring Growth

On a fall evening in 2020, Paddy Brown stood in Atlanta's Bessie Branham Park with his oldest son and two of his friends. Armed with a free online running program from Atlanta Track Club, Brown watched as the trio laced up their sneakers and started logging miles.

What began as a pandemic activity for three kids has now become a thriving community - which the three voted to name "The Bessie Branham Running Chickens" - of 50 young runners and an official site of Kilometer Kids, part of a flourishing program that's transforming youth running in Atlanta.

"The minute we registered [as a Kilometer Kids site], we got a lot of people outside our inner circle," Brown said. "It's grown each year. We live right next to the park and there's a circuit around the park. It makes it easy to measure distances. It's safe, away from traffic."

Today, Brown's group includes kids of all ages, including his two younger children. His oldest - 15-year-old Micah, who helped start it all in the park that fall night - now runs in high school and comes to practices to mentor the younger participants.

The growth of the Chickens mirrors the recent rapid expansion of Kilometer Kids as a whole, which before the pandemic saw gradual growth since its founding in 2007. In 2020, because of COVID-19, official participation fell to zero, but the Club decided to offer online information to guide parents who wanted to keep their children active.

When the program resumed in 2021, the program grew to 1,538 participants across 52 sites. In 2024, it serves almost 5,600 children, with 500 coaches across 149 sites.

"Every season since we've come back out of the pandemic, we've seen higher numbers of sites, higher numbers of participants, more new people coming into the fold," said Madison Hafitz, who was hired in 2020 as the Atlanta Track Club's senior program manager for Kilometer Kids and youth running. "We normally have 50 percent or more each season who are brand new. Word of mouth has been really powerful."

Kilometer Kids aims to give Atlanta-area children access and opportunities to run and be physically active. The program runs for 10 weeks in the fall and the spring, challenging participants to complete either a half marathon (13.1 miles) or a full marathon (26.2 miles) cumulatively over the course of the season.

For parents like Batya Smith, whose two children participate at Piedmont Park, Kilometer Kids has been a game changer.

"We don't have a backyard," said Smith, a runner and Atlanta Track Club member. "From the social and physical aspect, there wasn't much accessible, and all of a sudden, we had this awesome program."

Smith's children, now 5 and 9, began Kilometer Kids in the spring of 2021, the program's first official season after the pandemic.

Revamping for Growth

When Hafitz joined the Club in 2020, she and Eric Heintz, director of performance programming − whose own children were involved in the program in 2019 and again from 2021-23 - launched a sweeping redesign of the curriculum before Kilometer Kids returned from its pandemic hiatus.

"We recognized this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an organization like ourselves that is moving 100 mph," Heintz said. The goal? "To be the most modern, most relevant and most "Atlanta-Track-Club-like" youth program that could exist.

The revamped curriculum now spans more than 100 pages, including lesson plans, activities and support materials.

Each hour-long session includes a warm-up, a talk on the theme of the day, running itself and a running game to end. Participants earn awards for hitting distances such as 5K or 10K along the way. There are occasional time trials and races, and members of Club's Elite athlete team pay visits. Social and emotional learning is also woven into the program, with topics such as goal setting, positive self-talk, nutrition and hydration and rest.

"We want to teach them about the importance of aerobic exercise, always touching back on our program motto: 'Work hard, be kind, have fun,'" Hafitz said.

A Lifelong Connection to Running

One of the unique aspects of Kilometer Kids is its grassroots model: Community members or schools typically approach the Club to start a site, rather than the other way around. This ensures buy-in from the coaches and other volunteers, helping the program sustain itself.

"It is directly connected to the mission of the organization," Heintz said. "Our mission is to make Atlanta healthier through running and walking and we know that's going to happen through inspiring the next generation of runners and walkers, exposing them to this sport they can do for a lifetime, helping to cultivate healthy habits at a young age.

For Paddy Brown, the program's impact on his oldest son, Micah, has been profound. Micah, according to his father, not only gained confidence but also learned about leadership and staying positive from participating in the program.

"At this point, he's pretty sure he wants to be a coach when he grows up," Brown said.

Kilometer Kids is free to all youth, and is the largest program funded by donations to the Atlanta Track Club Foundation. To learn more and help support the program on this Giving Tuesday, click here.