Girls on the Run is about much more than running, although encouraging a healthy lifestyle is a huge part of its foundation.

With a mission of empowering girls to imagine and realize their limitless potential, the goal of the program is to develop joyful, healthy and confident girls.

This international organization, serving more than 168,000 girls each year in over 225 cities across North America, does use physical activity, including fun running games, to inspire confidence but, most importantly, it teaches life skills through dynamic, interactive lessons led by role models.

Girls on the Run Birmingham Metro will sponsor a two-day event this week to unite women and girls to support and inspire each other as they explore the question:  What would you do if you were not afraid to fail?

An Evening of Empowerment is Thursday, Oct. 8 at 5:30 p.m. at Clubhouse on Highland.

Guests will enjoy cocktails and appetizers during a meet-and-greet with Women Who Inspire. Molly Barker, founder of Girls on the Run International, will be one of them. The event will celebrate several local “superstars” – women who’ve made their dreams a reality because they were not afraid to fail.

Jessica Roskin

Cantor Jessica Roskin, a native of North Miami Beach, Florida, came to Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El in 1999. She serves the congregation in many capacities — teaching children and adults, pastoral care, counseling, weddings, funerals and so much more, including, of course, interpreting Jewish liturgy through the vast history and tradition of Jewish music.

What did Roskin do because she was not afraid to fail?

“As a senior in college I learned, while majoring in piano and minoring in voice and religious studies, that women could become cantors – ordained clergy in the Jewish religion. I picked up voice and religious studies as majors, took a fifth year in college and graduated with a triple major. With still one credit left, the college allowed me to attend graduation and begin seminary studies in Jerusalem, Israel, while taking a final class remotely to finish my degree. After my year in Israel, I moved to New York City, continuing seminary studies full time, while working as a cantor in a congregation in Waterford, Connecticut — a three-hour train ride — for two years. In my final and fifth year as a full-time student, I took a cantorial position in Manchester, New Hampshire, a plane ride away. After a five-year master’s program, I was ordained as a cantor. It took 10 years to achieve my goal, but here I am, practicing my profession and my calling here in Birmingham, Alabama.”

What would Roskin do if she was not afraid to fail?

“I believe that the work I do every day, teaching young people, calling congregants to check in, visiting those who are ailing, performing weddings and funerals, all my work puts me in situations that have the potential for good or for bad. I am present at both the happiest and most difficult and painful moments of people’s lives. It’s easy to say the wrong thing, or do something that upsets someone. There are challenges and the potential for causing unintentional harm in every situation. But if I live worried that I will do or say the wrong thing, I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what I’d set out to do. So, I try to live with intention, and with that mindfulness, imagine what I would wish to hear or experience from another person in the same situation. And so I cannot be afraid to fail. I do not wish to move through life paralyzed by my fear. Failure is alright, as long as you’re willing to pick yourself up and try again, and as long as you’ve tried the best you could try!

Brenda Ladun

Brenda Ladun, a news anchor for ABC 33/40, has worked in Birmingham television for two decades. She’s a five-time winner of the Alabama Associated Press Award for Best Investigative Reporter and Best Specialized Reporter. Most recently, Ladun won the Associated Press Award for Best Anchor. She also is a two-time breast cancer survivor, a mother and an author.

What did Ladun do because she was not afraid to fail?

“My mother always told me I could do anything I put my mind to! I believed her. When broadcast opportunities were presented in college, I went for it. I learned from others and was not afraid to ask questions. My first broadcast was at 14 years of age. I prayed about my future. Doors to broadcasting continued to open. I still pray about where God wants me so I live in trust not fear. I’m also not afraid to fail at raising money to support cancer research to find a cure.”

What would Ladun do if she was not afraid to fail?

“I am also praying about opening a home for abused and abandoned children.”

Javacia Harris Bowser

Javacia Harris Bowser is the founder of See Jane Write, a membership organization and website for women who write and blog. This year, Bowser was recognized as one of the city’s Top 40 Under 40 by the Birmingham Business Journal. Bowser enjoys sharing her love of writing with students at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, where she teaches English.

What did Bowser do when she was afraid she might fail?

“There was a time when I would let fear of failure keep me from going after my biggest dreams. I would just stick to the things I knew I was good at because I was so worried about being perfect. I let perfectionism paralyze me. But then one day I realized that not trying was guaranteed failure. Now I live by the motto, ‘Feel the fear, and do it anyway.’ I recently saw a quote that perfectly sums up my attitude toward trying new things and going after my goals: ‘I never lose. Either I win or I learn.’”

What would Boswer do now if she wasn’t afraid to fail?

“If I wasn’t afraid to fail, I would take my business, See Jane Write LLC, to higher heights so that I could use it to empower even more women and girls through writing, blogging and entrepreneurship. I’d expand to other cities and launch new programs like a feminist blogging camp for teen girls. And I’d make the necessary moves to increase my revenue so that I could hire staff. And since I’m no longer letting fear of failure stop me, I plan to do all these things and more!”

Sarah Parcak

Sarah Parcak holds degrees from Yale and Cambridge University, is a National Geographic Society Archaeology Fellow and is the founding director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology. Sarah and her husband, Egyptologist Greg Mumford, work together on projects in the Delta, Sinai and pyramid fields regions of Egypt. She has written her first textbook on satellite archaeology, which uses satellite imaging to identify potential archaeological sites.

What did you do because you were not afraid to fail?

“I have taken some big chances with scientific collaborations in areas outside my specialization. Fortunately, the risks paid off!”

 What would you do if you were not afraid to fail?

“I’ll let you know when I am afraid …”

Molly Barker

Guests will view the documentary “The Empowerment Project” followed by remarks and a question and answer session with Barker, who is the featured social entrepreneur in “The Empowerment Project.” (Tickets are $50 and space is limited.)

What did Barker do because she was not afraid to fail?

“I think I’ve actually never been afraid of failing … because I do not see failure as something to fear. Failure, for me, is part of the creative process. Some ‘stuff’ works, and other ‘stuff’ doesn’t.  You can’t know what kind of ‘stuff’ you’ve got until you try!”

What would Barker do if she was not afraid to fail?

“I’ve lived my entire life this way. I’m not sure if this was how I was raised or wired in through my DNA. … I am too curious to let fear of failure or the unknown hold me back.”

The program on Friday is about empowering girls. Middle school girls from across the Birmingham Metro area are invited to a free screening of “The Empowerment Project” at Putnam Middle School from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. After the film, there will be a question and answer session with the local Women Who Inspire and Barker.

A Girls on the Run event. (contributed)

“When middle school girls watch this film together, we want to create a spark to remind them to think big,” said Catherine Gregory, executive director of Girls on the Run Birmingham Metro. “This spring, we will launch a middle school curriculum called Heart & Sole, which will build on the question ‘What would you try if you were not afraid to fail?’ and teach life skills to help the girls move forward with confidence and self-respect.”

Gregory says she sees this two-day event as more “friend-raiser” than fundraiser.

“Living in a community of women encouraging each other and modeling supportive behavior will create an environment that fosters all dreams from girls and young women right here in Birmingham,” she said. “I hope these events are just the start of a bigger movement to elevate girls’ visions of what they can accomplish.”

Girls on the Run Birmingham Metro is celebrating its fifth year of serving girls in third to fifth grades and their families. The chapter started with three teams in 2011 and now averages 15 teams per season at schools in and near Birmingham. The local chapter expanded in 2013 to include Shelby and St. Clair counties. Talladega County joined for the first time in fall 2014.

Girls on the Run Birmingham Metro girls. (contributed)

With the help of some 400 trained volunteer coaches in these communities, more than 1,200 girls have completed the program, which culminates with the girls being physically and emotionally prepared to complete a celebratory 5K running event. The girls in the program participate in two 5Ks: a Girls on the Run 5K in Hoover in the spring (open to community runners, too) and a partnership with the Magic City Half Marathon and 5K in the fall.

“Girls on the Run creates a community where all girls are prepared to successfully navigate peer and media pressure and remain true to themselves,” says Gregory.

To join in the conversations about what you’d do if you were not afraid to fail, go to the Girls on the Run Birmingham Facebook page.