The Beginning
Deborah "Deb" Aseltine of Wilton, Maine founded Fit Girls of Wilton, Maine in 2012 as a passion project to support young girls in the community to build self-confidence through running, reading, and community service. The program began out of Academy Hill School (AHS) in Wilton, Maine. At the time, the RSU 9 school district secured a Carol White PEP Grant to fund additional physical activity and nutrition programs in the schools. Fit Girls worked alongside the District Health Coordinator and the Healthy Community Coalition of Franklin County to ensure funding to support the program as well. The very first fall season included 12 girls at AHS.
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501(c)(3) charitable organization
With much leg work on behalf on Deb and Ron Aseltine, in 2014, Fit Girls of Wilton, Maine became a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Over Time
Fit Girls created partnerships with local businesses, recreation departments, and libraries. To this day Fit Girls collaborates with the Healthy Community Coalition of Franklin County and offers the 5-2-1-0 program to families and their children. Fit Girls now serves all of Franklin County. At various points in time, Fit Girls has offered programming at each elementary in RSU 9, sponsored free summer camps, pivoted to pandemic survival kits, and maintained its fall, Fit and Fun 5K fundraiser.
Today
Fit Girls currently serves about 60-70 girls each fall and spring at all three potential sites in RSU 9: Academy Hill School in Wilton, Cascade Brook School in Farmington, and Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon. All 4th and 5th grade girls in Franklin County are invited to participate at either location, including a notable number of homeschoolers! Fit Girls is an accessible organization that adapts to all ability, access related needs.
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The Continued Why
As Franklin County, and Wilton in particular, remains a rural, underserved area, the Fit Girls nonprofit continues its focus of support and development for those students and their families. Fit Girls of Wilton, Maine has long been supported by Tyngtown Club and Wilton Lions Club, whose donations directly aid the Wilton Fit Girls experience to increase the girls' access to the outdoors, movement, nutrition, and reading development.
Made Possible By
Fit Girls is entirely volunteer based. The nonprofit could not run without its head coaches and teachers, in particular longtime supporters, Tina Davis, Nancy Ellis, and Stephanie French. Aseltine served as Executive Director 2012-2022, at which point Karli Erickson RN BSN BA, and a local school nurse substitute, came on board as part of the nonprofit's sustainability plan. In fall of 2024 Anne Marie Damiani BSW joined as Fit Girls Program Director to help facilitate the day to day operations.
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