Chatham Woman Brings On the Girl Power

If you believe in girl power, resident Dawn Paskalides wants you.

Paskalides has spent the last seven months planning a "GIRL emPOWERed" event which takes place Saturday at . The day is inspired, in part, by the program. "It's a very powerful program, Paskalides said. "[It's] about being empowered, having a voice and making positive choices."

From television and magazines to the Internet and their friends, it can be tough to be an adolescent girl. Girls on the Run provides a place for girls to be active and positive forces for themselves and their peers. There is, however, one shortcoming.

"I didn't like the fact that there's only 24 spaces in Girls on the Run," Paskalides said. If you're not sitting at your computer the minute registration opens, your child won't get in. ... Everyone should be able to take this. It should be an after-school enrichment activity that you can take all the time."

Paskalides contacted Sage Girl, which licenses Girls on the Run, and pitched the idea of raising more money for Chatham girls to participate in Girls on the Run. She received, she said, an "over-the-top" reaction.

To raise the money, Paskalides started planning a fundraising event which, over the past months, has ballooned into a scholarship program and the current plan for the .

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., members of the community can shop from different vendors at the event. Each vendor gives a tax-deductible $100 donation for the scholarships, and $7,000 will go toward Sage Girl. Also, Paskalides will award three graduating senior girls from Chatham High School with $1,000 college scholarships with money raised from the vendors.

At 2 p.m., the graduating senior girls from who won the first three scholarships from GIRL emPOWERed will read a part of their essay. Wendy Mass, a New York Times best-selling author of children's and young adult books, will also give a speech.

"Then we're doing a flash mob dance," Paskalides said. "We put it on the website if you want to learn the flash mob dance, and then that day we'll have a booth set up where you can learn it."

At 2:30, the GIRL emPOWERed march begins. All girls between the ages of 1 and 101 are invited to participate.

All shoppers, marchers and attendants will be entered in a raffle to win an iPad, a feature which, Paskalides said, has opened up the event to more than just girls. "A lot of boys are coming, because they want to be in the raffle," she said.

In planning the event, Paskalides said she "The high school girls designed the T-shirts and found the sponsors," she said. "My two girls [Grace and Anna] designed the Web site. The high school Key Club is really involved, the Girl Scouts are helping."

Megan Gesell, a student at Chatham High, asked to make the video for the event. "I said, 'Megan, I know you can do this,'" Paskalides said. "She totally empowered [herself] to just take it on." The video can be found in the Photos & Videos section of this article.

Another student, Tess Kolker, is in charge of selling T-shirt, which are $10 each. Two high school students will deejay the event and the march.

"I know I started it and it's like my little baby, but my goal is to completely step back from this and empower girls to run this. And it's working," Paskalides said.