Twanger
10-05-2009, 10:03 AM
On Sunday the Bethesda Chevy Chase Izaak Walton league in Poolesville Maryland sponsored a Wounded Warrior event. In this event Soldiers recovering at Walter Reed hospital and their families were invited out to the farm for lunch, hay rides, fishing in the pond, a visit to the pumpkin patch, and were also invited to try their hand at archery. The action was fast, furious, and continuous at the archery range for almost 3 hours. Whew! It was a grand success by any standard.
A big thanks to the Maryland Bowhunter's Society Central Chapter for loaning archery equipment to the BCC-IWLA in support of this event. This included bows, arrows, targets, stands and that all-important arrow curtain! That curtain saved us untold grief and countless arrows! No more fruitless searching in the grass for buried arrows.
Here's a picture of the set-up and the firing line. We modeled it after the National Archery in the School's program configuration. We let everybody shoot that wanted to. The paramedics who supported the event, Izaak Walton volunteers and their kids, and of course the soldiers and their families. We had a little three year old girl that shot the 3D deer and then started jumping up and down screaming "Mommy! I got him!!!!" Her daddy has lost his leg in recent service, and he was beaming. I got him shooting the crossbow, and his wife shot some of the vertical bows. Everyone was smiling from ear to ear the whole time. Events like this warm the soul, and I truly believe that everyone that worked the event got far more out of it than they gave.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_3064b.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_3070b.jpg
A big thanks to the Maryland Bowhunter's Society Central Chapter for loaning archery equipment to the BCC-IWLA in support of this event. This included bows, arrows, targets, stands and that all-important arrow curtain! That curtain saved us untold grief and countless arrows! No more fruitless searching in the grass for buried arrows.
Here's a picture of the set-up and the firing line. We modeled it after the National Archery in the School's program configuration. We let everybody shoot that wanted to. The paramedics who supported the event, Izaak Walton volunteers and their kids, and of course the soldiers and their families. We had a little three year old girl that shot the 3D deer and then started jumping up and down screaming "Mommy! I got him!!!!" Her daddy has lost his leg in recent service, and he was beaming. I got him shooting the crossbow, and his wife shot some of the vertical bows. Everyone was smiling from ear to ear the whole time. Events like this warm the soul, and I truly believe that everyone that worked the event got far more out of it than they gave.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_3064b.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_3070b.jpg