Members of Girls Inc. compete in Chocolate Olympics

Anna Vincel, 7, dashed to a table with two marker-wielding volunteers and thrust her Olympic certificate at one of them. Vincel’s head then whipped to another table covered in cookies, sprinkles and tubes of icing. She began to inch toward them.

“Here you go!” IU freshman Alexandra Franz said to Vincel, handing her signed certificate over the relay race table.

Vincel and about 50 other girls participated in the Chocolate Olympics at Girls Inc., the fifth event in Bloomington’s annual Week of Chocolate.

Options, a nonprofit organization, hosts the Week of Chocolate. The organization works with people with disabilities to help them live fulfilled lives, according to their Web site.

The Week of Chocolate started Jan. 31 and runs through Feb. 8. It includes 10 chocolate-based events that raise money for several different non-profit organizations in Bloomington and Monroe County.

The Chocolate Olympics raised funds for Girls Inc. through entry fees: $5 for a single participant and $10 for families.

The Girls Inc. event featured five competitions – a relay race, a basketball hoop-shooting contest, a scooter obstacle course, jump rope and cookie decorating.

Vincel decided halfway through the events that her favorite so far was the obstacle course.

“I like scooting on these things,” she said, munching on a heart-shaped piece of chocolate.

Rachel Dotson, director of program services at Girls Inc., explained that their event is sports-based because it’s scheduled around National Girls and Women in Sports Day, which always happens this time of year. Wednesday’s Chocolate Olympics marked the fourth time Girls Inc. has participated in the Week of Chocolate.

“I’ve been really happy with how busy it is,” Dotson said. “We really want families to spend time together and get to know other families and girls.”

About 10 volunteers worked the tables set up in the Girls Inc. gym.

Volunteers wearing red t-shirts emblazoned with “strong, smart, bold” – Girls Inc.’s motto – jump roped and scooted along with girls whose mothers preferred to observe rather than participate.

Senior Sara Koenigsberg-Wasser oversaw the cookie-decorating table. Koenigsberg-Wasser teaches a weekly art program on Fridays at Girls Inc. and said she enjoyed decorating with many of her regular pupils.

“Creativity and chocolate are two passions of mine, so I jumped at this,” she said. “The cookie table has been really popular, of course. Everyone loves cookies.”

Franz, a nursing major, started volunteering with Girls Inc. last fall. She helped oversee the relay race.

Compared to how excited the girls usually are to be at Girls Inc. after school, they seemed pretty calm at the Chocolate Olympics, Franz said.

“They seem to be having fun and enjoying themselves,” she said.

Girls Inc. encourages girls to participate in sports with basketball and volleyball leagues as well as a dance team. About half of Girls Inc.’s 400 members, ages 5 to 18, are involved in the volleyball program, Dotson said.

Hannah Nasstrom, 6, attended the Chocolate Olympics with her mother, Karen Nasstrom.

Hannah, who has been a member of Girls Inc. since September, said she enjoys the events and weekly activities at the organization because she gets to do a lot of fun things.

“I learned how to jump rope,” she said. “Backwards – and on one foot!”

Koenigsberg-Wasser said that most of the girls who attended the event were already Girls Inc. members.

“Hopefully after hearing about this, more people will want to be involved,” she said. “We do really great things for the community.”