Cedar Rapids effort 'trying to build girls up' to be leaders Follow Us Question of the Day By GRACE KING - Associated Press - Saturday, February 27, 2021 CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - Akirah Johnson, 11, spends three days a week finding community and mentorship at a new program - Saving Our Sisters - that encourages positive decision-making for middle and high school girls in Cedar Rapids. For the past few weeks, Akirah has been working on creating a vision board, which helps her think about her goals and how to achieve them. Akirah, who is a fifth-grader at Garfield Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, already is eager to learn how to drive a car, said her mother, Tiara Johnson. She loves to dance, draw and color and read. And she asks a lot of questions, her mother said.