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Above: Bebe Ramzah, left, and Robin Coleman Perry: Shorty Award winners for Everyday People Who Made the Best Contributions to the Running Community (H. Scott Hoffmann photo).

It's not hard to quantify the difference that Robin Coleman Perry and Bayyinah "Bebe" Ramzah are making in the running community.

And Perry and Ramzah are sharing a Shorty that Running Shorts will have to rename Everyday People Who Made the Best Contributions to the Running Community. It's our final award as we celebrate people, places and races in the Triad for 2011.

Perry leads Greensboro's Black Girls Run! group, which evolved in 2011 from a spring start, to about 100 Facebook members and scheduled runs in the Gate City in late summer, to now about 400 members. ("It's a honor to run with them. Not lead them!" Perry says.) And now BGR members can choose not only among four scheduled morning or evening runs in Greensboro, there are two morning options in High Point as well (see the Find A Group box on the right).

"Robin loves to run," Marya Reliford writes by email. "She is always encouraging people to become more active and lead a healthy lifestyle."

Running might not be for everyone, but we like Traci Poole's nomination of Perry.

"I must confess, I have hated running ever since I began playing sports 25 years ago," Poole writes. "I have never experienced a runner's high. The folks on the running magazines rarely (if ever) looked like me or had my problems with exercise. I've joined other running programs that helped with technique, but I felt somewhat isolated and needed help with problems they didn't have or understand. Then, I stumbled upon Robin.

"She looked like me. She had a physique I could strive for. And she absolutely would not let me quit. Due to her encouragement, I have started walking consistently. I wish I could tell you that I now love to run ... I don't. What I love to do is be in the presence of positive people like Robin Perry who happens to be a Black Girl who Runs!"

Ramzah is now a former co-ambassador of the Black Girls Run! group. She also leads the area's Fit Chicks On the Move, a program designed to encourage women of all ages to lead fit and healthy lives and with a Facebook group of about 175 members. And now Ramzah is working with Lisa Everett on a Fit Chicks Movement, a non-profit organization that will lead a Couch-to-5K program starting in January for girls ages 9-16.

"Bebe not only contributes to the running community by inspiring young and older ladies to lace up and keep it moving," Everett writes. "Ms. Ramzah inspires readers daily through daily motivational messages on her Facebook page, Fit Chicks on the Move. Coupled with a positive attitude and a spirit to run, Bebe shares running tips as well as health information to her readers. Bebe's non-profit is geared toward helping girls ages 9 to 16 maintain a healthy lifestyle through running and other physical activities. Currently, BeBe is on a mission to raise money for running shoes to jump-start the young girls running program."

There are many others who make outstanding contributions to the running community, too. Among those nominated by Running Shorts readers:

Samantha Magill, Downtown Greenway Running Group: Magill organized a training group meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, before dawn, leading up to September's Run 4 the Greenway. The race is over, but the group continues to meet for runs. "She is enthusiastic and brings the group together through email and during the run," Elizabeth Freeze writes. "If it were not such a cohesive group, brought together by Samantha, I would probably not be running as often with the group. She knows about every upcoming race and encourages us to sign up and run local races with her. Truly, my husband and I run faster with the group than without, Samantha pushes us to run our best. She is a true asset to Greensboro and the running community."

Rich Swor, Greensboro Cross Country League: The league, with about 20 runners on four teams, held its first three races during a fall season. But more competition lies ahead. From Thanh Ngo, an assistant coach in Northern Guilford High School's running program: "A small group of runners for the first season, but it has expectations to grow in the future. He plans on continuing the XC league and also starting a spring Greensboro Track League on the same basis and principles as the XC league."

George Freiberger, Westchester Country Day School: The senior track and field athlete drew a nomination from his coach, Mark Scott, after Freiberger helped lead Westchester to a state championship in the spring. Freiberger competed in the maximum number of events allowed in the state meet, in running and jumping competition, and Scott says Freiberger could've won more had he been allowed. "Despite being a key member of a soccer team that won a state championship at WCDS his junior year," Scott writes by email, "Freiberger made the difficult decision not to play soccer this, his senior year, and instead train for the triple jump. How many kids are giving up their school's most popular sport where they could contend for a state title in order to spend the fall running hills, lifting weights, doing bounding and running some cross country in order to build strength for something months down the road?"

Scott adds: "Forget that he is one of the top 10 ranked track and field high school prospects by ESPN and being recruited by some of the best college coaches in the nation. Forget that he has elevated teammates to where they are now being offered college track and field scholarships. Forget that he is an Eagle Scout ready to help fellow teammates AND opponents before, during or after practices and meets. Simply vote for him because he has contributed significantly to the growth and well being of running in our community."