By The Numbers - July & Golden Shoelaces Are Here!!
Victory
Definition of victory:
1: the overcoming of an enemy or antagonist.
2: achievement of mastery or success in a struggle or endeavor against odds or difficulties.
Dear Family,
Did you complete the Jumpstart in June? What about the Remix in July? If you did and haven’t already claimed your victory, do so here because the GirlTrek Golden Shoelaces have arrived and will start shipping out at the end of this week! Claim by Friday, August 5 to receive yours in the first mailing! If you’ve already provided your info, sit back and get ready to receive it, you don't need to do anything! Shoelaces should arrive over the next two weeks.
You did that. When no one was looking. When it would have been easy to bow out. When the going got tough. You kept pressing towards victory and you did it with style, grace, and a whole lot of joy.
Thank you for showing up for yourself and for your sisters. Below is a celebration of our work together in July by the numbers.
As for those of us who haven’t been able to catch the momentum and string together a full 21 days of walking or Remixing. For those of us who have fallen off and have yet to get up. And mostly, for those of us who have yet to get started. August is here to offer you everything you need.
August. Known as Black August in movement circles. The month that brought us the Haitian Revolution, Nat Turners Rebellion, the March on Washington, the births of James Baldwin, Fred Hampton, Marcia P. Johnson, and so much more. That Black August energy is calling you to liberate yourself through a daily habit of walking. In fact, that Black August energy, the same energy that elected brought Barack Obama the democratic nomination and birthed Marcus Garvey – can birth a new you if you let it.
Just start here with the Jumpstart or here with any of GirlTrek’s 21-day Black History Bootcamps.
Then plan to lace up and walk with us each Saturday this month for our National Rally and Roll Call. It’s a walk and talk, a sisterhood check-in, and some weekly accountability straight from the ancestors. Listen or download last Saturday’s walk for proof.
Completed both challenges for June and July? Now it’s time to go back and get a sister! Who in your life could you walk with this month, virtually or otherwise, to help them get their laces? Be like Harriet. Now that you’ve got your strength, walk another sister to the finish line.
While you are walking this month, we will be working hard to deliver to you the organizing tools that you’ve been asking for. From custom Crew shirts to yard signs with QR Codes, to new hoodies. We promise to put the Move back in Movement, by focusing on developing the tools and gear that have been most requested by our frontline organizers.
There’s nothing more important to us right now than making sure you have what you need and with 51 days left in Summer, we plan to make the most of each day, because once fall rolls around – Baaaabbbby! It will truly be harvest season, and we are going to need all the things!
In the meantime, we take a beat to look back before moving forward with a By The Numbers recap of July that starts with the most important number of all:
JULY BY THE NUMBERS RECAP
1: It was ten years ago when Faye Paige Edwards started walking around St. Louis with a sandwich board that said. “Ask me about a million Black women walking”, helping to officially launch the GirlTrek movement. Since then, she’s been one of our most powerful advisers and this week she came through with some urgent feedback, “solo trekkers have been and will continue to be the heart and soul of the movement so don’t leave them behind.”
And she’s right. The first tenant of the Tubman Doctrine is “never ask permission to save your own life,” because we know that most of us will have to take the first steps alone. We’ll have to minister to ourselves in the early morning hours because there won’t be a Crew waiting for us. We’ll have to remind ourselves that we have everything we need – because it’s the truth. So here again is your reminder. You don’t need to wait for anyone. Not for a blue dot to show up on the national map. Not for your friends to finally agree to a meeting spot. The movement is designed for you to lace up and walk outside of your front door each day. You are the Harriet. The hero of your own story. We are your witnesses and are here to cheer you on. Don’t let anything stop you, move now.
547: Crew leaders! One of those new crews is in Kansas City thanks to Employee of the Month Coach Pam! She is not only cleaning up toxic waste in her own community of Denver and leading walkability audits on the streets, but she is traveling around her region to raise up the movement. Crew leaders, make sure to check-in whenever you lead your crew so we know you are repping the movement in your neighborhood.
7: The number of hours it takes to fly from Seattle to Fayetteville, NC because there are no direct flights. That’s what Lydia Nichols learned a year ago this weekend when she got a call from her youngest son that would change her life forever. “I heard a gunshot coming from dads’ room,” he said. Lydia, who’d recently been celebrated as a hometown hero for her work as a nurse, said she stepped out on the balcony of her small city apartment and prayed to grow wings. Prayed that her younger son was mistaken. Maybe it was fireworks? Prayed that her eldest son, a senior scholar at Morehouse College, who was in a car en route to see his younger brother on his way back to Atlanta wouldn’t arrive and to see the unthinkable. But he did. The father of Lydia’s youngest son, a military veteran, had just committed suicide. Her two sons were there to experience it. At that moment, Lydia said she could not have imagined that she would need to pick up her life, relocate to rural North Carolina, and build a new community in the midst of the hardest season of her life. But that’s what she did. And when she didn’t know anyone in that town, or where to look for community, she put on her blue shirt, checked on the GirlTrek map, and pushed an hour to the small town of Whiteville, NC where Coach Frankye Boone was hosting a walk. From that first walk, Lydia said she knew she had a new family. A crew. "And that is the power of the GirlTrek movement. That we are everywhere ready, always, to welcome a new woman with open arms."
6: The number of miles that Judy Clonts, Ursula Jackson and their Crew walk every Monday through Friday at 6AM in Kennesaw, GA. The city got word of this epic accomplishment and the Mayor of Kennesaw signed a proclamation declaring July 18th as GirlTrek Kennesaw Day! This is you show up and show out!
3: The number of miles that Shaquana from Richmond has her baby girls out walking on Saturday mornings. We often get asked how does GirlTrek serve young girls? This is it! We serve them by being healthy role models. By walking with them and talking with them about their life and day. We show them by example. "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."
313,240: The number of people who engaged with our content this month on Instagram. If you’re not following @girltrek on social, you are missing a vital connection to the movement. It’s here where we chop it up unfiltered, share daily inspiration and remind you of what’s happening in the movement. Our most popular most this month? A post about dating and love, which we broke down this Saturday. Listen here.
63: The age of Sandra Anderson who said, “I have been walking/hiking 5 miles for the past 349 days all over Georgia. My cousin encouraged me to join #GirlTrek so I joined, ordered a shirt and I am out here!” Shout out to Sandra’s cousin! You’ve inspired us to issue the cousin’s challenge to everyone in our community. It’s simple. Just forward this email to all your cousins – real ones and the play ones – and tell them that this August they can join GirlTrek by completing the Jumpstart Challenge.
7,040: Support hours from our coaching fellows so far this year! And all of those support hours are to help women like you transform your lives. To help us track this transformation please make sure to fill out our annual health survey.
That’s it!
May this Black August bring you freedom, bring you liberation, bring you love in its highest form – from you to you. May we walk with assurance that our ancestors paved the way. May we remember the struggle of the freedom fighters and honor them with each step we take. May our healing be glorious, loud, and as bold as the heroes who we celebrate this month.
We’ll be on the pavement this Saturday at 9 AM, ET. Mark your calendars. Make this week count. Dial: 1 (646) 876-9923 CODE: 734464325 (+16468769923,,734464325#).
Blessings,
V&M