We welcome you to our 10th YEAR of our Outdoor Outreach program.

Approx. 150 kids this year, biggest attendance yet!

I have lots of photos to upload, will get caught up later today. Special kids, special donations from fellow TradGangers.

Gotta go and stock up on ice and drinks, 95 degrees today!

 

A very busy week... and very hot. Doesn't seem to bother the kids though, they're having a blast.

Many photos to follow, but would like to take a minute to acknowledge some major donations to our camp.

Arrow building has benefited greatly by a large donation of feathers this year by Chris Schwarz (DLAMA).

Last year, we obtained multiple dozens of finished arrows and points from Terry Boyer (Wapiti Bowman).

And this year a concerted effort by John Reichenbacker (americanhunter7) purchasing the arrows and Rob Green (Green) building them, resulted in six dozen very nice kids arrows.

We THANK YOU all for your generosity!

- Dave

A quick tour of our archery area. This photo shows the open lane where we shoot "long distance".

Always get great help from the staff in having this mowed down low so that arrows are easy to retrieve.

 

And turn right down another lane to the main shooting area.

Heavy growth and some poison ivy requires a good clean-out the week prior to camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the lanscaping screen we use to catch arrows....

 

We have about 150 kids this year. They arrive at the archery activity in groups of 10-13 per group, along with several Counselors and Counselors in Training.

First order of business is shooting instruction and of course the most important thing, SAFETY! They listen and behave well... no accidents/injuries in 10 years of archery in camp.

 

 

Time to shoot... some have never shot a bow before and others are returnees to the camp.

 

 

 

 

Foam balls are tossed around....

 

 

 

The young man in the gray shirt, standing behind the camp archer.... that is Travelle, my assistant at the archery activity this year. He is now 18 yrs old. I first met him when he was 9 yrs old during his first visit to the camp. He has been a huge help to me this week, jumps right in to help the kids, and he is also addicted to archery... probably shot a thousand arrows in two days, lol.  

 

All of the Counselors get their turn at shooting. It's important that they learn to shoot also, so they too can teach archery. And the kids love to haggle them when they're shooting.

 

The Middle School groups... girls and guys in separate groups. They always do archery, but are otherwise busy going tubing on the river or swimming at a local lake/beach.

I heard today that some of the girls were asking how small of bikinis they could wear at the beach... Lord help them boys. :-)

 

 

Super HOT this week, mid-90's every day. Big property, activities spread out... so transport on hot days is a good thing. Water stops are frequent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come....

Great program  that looks like alot of fun for all involved!
My hats off to every organization and every single person inversting time and money to get those kids out and show them meaningful activities in the outdoors.  

Dave - I had no idea that the camp served that many kids.  You're tops for your involvement and leadership.        

Hey Rob, big group this year. We've never had more than 10 in a group, this year we've had 11-13 kids in each group.

If this keeps up, we're gonna need more trolleys, more canoes, more fishing poles, more campfires/weenies/marshmallows, more zip lines, another climbing wall, and more bows. :-)

The first 2 days are utilized in getting the kids comfortable with shooting and learning the rules of safety on the "short" range. We have 10 targets setup at 10 and 15 yards. The area is somewhat confined with the netting backdrop.

Days 3 and 4 are loosened up a bit, where the kids aren't "guarded" as closely as they were during the opening days. They are now "experienced" and given some room to do their thing.

But, no matter what they are doing... fashion is apparently a priority.

 

Awesome job sir!