Compton has been doing this for several years. Nick set me up two years ago as well and I wrote the following story about it.
Compton Lights the Fire for Archery!
“Where can I buy a bow and arrows”? After three full days of archery instruction at the Seneca Lake, New York annual Young Women’s camp for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the question became rather routine. I had at least five different girls, parents, or adult camp leaders ask me this question. I took it as an indicator of the archery program being a huge success. The camp is held to help the girls learn gospel principles and experience outdoor activities that many would otherwise not have the opportunity to experience.
“Mr. Receveur, this is fantastic”! “Will you be here tomorrow”? “Can I come back and shoot during free-time”? “This is the most fun I’ve had at camp so far”. “I thought we were going to have to sit in a pavilion all week and make jewelry or something. I didn’t know we were going to be able to do cool stuff like shooting bows”. These are only a few of the comments from several of the 150 young women, from 12 to 18 years old, who participated in the archery program. Several of the youth leaders also made a special effort to get to the archery range and participate.
Thanks to a generous donation of five bows, arrows, finger tabs, and arm guards by Compton Traditional Bowhunters, archery was placed on the program for the week long girl’s camp. Many times one of the young women participants would ask about Compton. Upon explanation there was almost always a genuine interest in bowhunting. Fortunately, I brought along a couple copies of “A Walk in the Woods” and a few photo albums of past hunts. What many of the girls really found interesting was the photo of my 16 year old daughter and the 10’ alligator she had taken with a bow the prior summer. Most were also in awe that a bow and arrow could cleanly and humanely harvest an 1800 pound bull moose.
To close out the week, I put on an archery competition that included long range flight shooting of flu-flu arrows, balloon popping, and ring scoring. I broke it into age groups and awarded some large trophies (garage sale find) to the winners. I also created a few special awards for things like “Most Appreciative”, “Most Natural”, “Most Teachable”, “Arrow Killer”, and “Most Helpful”. For these awards, I wrote on a flu-flu arrow the name of the winner and the award. The young women simply loved shooting flu-flus and were enamored with the name.
The answer to the question at the beginning of the article was, Three Rivers Archery, since the equipment donated by Compton Traditional Bowhunters was purchased there and the Karch family have always been great supporters of promoting archery. The bows, arrows, and other supplies will remain at the camp and archery will become an annual addition to the program.
Thank you to Compton and all its members for helping light the fire of archery in many young women!
Topic: A Massive Thanks to Compton Traditional Bowhunters (Read 559 times)
