The Women with Balls training group
A neighborhood running group is giving back to the W.T. White community. They’re known as “Women with Balls.” The name refers to the stability balls they use during their workouts, but their leader Patsy Shropshire says it also refers to the women’s resilience in the face of hardship.
Nearly all the group’s members — neighborhood women in their 40s, 50s and 60s, — have lived through serious medical issues like cancer and heart disease or challenges such as divorce or separation.
“… we are keenly aware that life takes courage, persistence, and defiance … it takes “balls,” Shropshire says.
The name also shows they haven’t lost their sense of humor.
WWB hosts its annual fun run and breakfast at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 26 at W.T. White to help raise funds to beautify the high school’s track area. (You may recall the contention last fall over whether the school should receive approval for its much-needed athletics portable. WWB came out in support of the school. They originally had scheduled the fundraiser for December, but it was postponed because of the ice storm).
The group will donate 100 percent of the $25 registration fee to the cause. Rusty Taco will provide breakfast after the social run. Sark Gardens will donate its expertise, displaying blueprints at the event showing the plans for the improved track area.
Go here to learn more and register for the event.
WWB raises money for all sorts of causes, including the Austin Street Shelter, St. Mary of Carmel school library, Micaela’s Army and the Dallas chapter of the National MS Foundation. It’s all part of their fitness routine — supporting each other and the community.
“Almost a hundred years ago, the poet John Holmes said, ‘There is no better exercise for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.’ Today, science confirms that saying. Helping others definitely ‘does a body good,'” Shropshire says.
