CamoMan
New Member
Well, the summer camps at Wildwood Hills Ranch came to a close recently, and it was truly a great summer. Many, many kids were sponsored at this 400 acre ranch for a week or more of camping. Most of these kids come from challenging and difficult situations at home, and the majority are considered to be at-risk kids. It's hard to change a person's life in 5 days, but in many cases, a change was made, or some roadblocks to change were taken down. The people who devote their summers to counseling here are very special people. It is an honor to be a part of the programs that they administer, including archery. They had one week in particular that was especially difficult - and not because of rough campers. The ranch is located near St. Charles, and one day they got 7 inches of rain. The 'harmless' creeks rose fast, and flooded all around the camp. 12 of the 13 cars that were parked in a field got covered and ruined. Unfortunately, all of these belonged to counselors, and most are college kids.
In addition to the archery, we have been given the opportunity to start an outdoors based mentoring program for selected teens. The program name is Bullseye Adventures, and our slogan is 'Make an impact'. (Many thanks to Gladiator for the logo design - I definitely tested his patience with this one.) /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif In addition to archery, we will be involving the kids in various aspects of hunting . . . I can't wait til youth season!!!
I want to give you a photo tour of the archery program at Wildwood, and let you meet some of the volunteers, plus the kids involved in the mentoring program.
Mallory was an incredible counselor, and she soaked up the archery training that was provided by Ironwood, Elkhunter, and Teeroy. In this photo, she is showing them how to handle and draw the bow. The two big kids at the end are Teeroy and BJ (LXshooter), and both are now volunteers for our upcoming Bounceback weekends.
One boy was having a pretty tough time shooting, and BJ jumped in and helped him. It made a great difference, and he began hitting the target. Having that kind of success makes a huge impact on the self esteem of these great young kids.
I called these young ladies the Bullseye Girls, and they just lit up when their arrows hit the target. And when they scored a couple of bullseyes, it was high fives for everyone! This was an extra special day, because my daughter, Molly went to the ranch with me to see what we do there. It was great to have her meet these kids.
I want to introduce you to our first two kids in our Bullseye Adventures program - Roy and Marina. They were both counselors-in-training at the camp, in the hopes that someday, they will mature into quality camp counselors. Roy is my young mentor friend, and Marina is paired up with Barb and Mike (Ironwood). They are great kids, and both definitely need quality guidance and role models in their lives. Ignore the orange paint, they were getting in 'costume' to play capture the flag.
I was able to take Roy to the recent 3D shoot hosted by the Mid-Iowa Archers. It was his first outing with the bow after a brief sighting-in session. We had a blast, and Roy has talked about it frequently. I was pleasantly surprised with how well he shot. We'll be back for the September shoot.
Although Marina wasn't able to be with us at this shoot, we paired up with Mike and Barb. Mike really came in handy with finding most of my stray arrows. Note - don't shoot against Barb, or you may get humbled.
I want to give a huge thanks to each volunteer who is a part of these archery and mentoring programs. As you can see, several of them are Iowawhitetail members - and I won't apologize if I embarrassed you by mentioning your names. I know that you don't do it for attention or kudos, but each of you are greatly appreciated by the Wildwood team. I want to give another shout-out to the Mid-Iowa Archers who volunteered to sponsor the Bullseye program this fall by helping Roy and Marina out with some hunting items, plus a generous offer by a member for taxidermy services. I just cannot express how grateful we are for the kindness that so many hunters and archers have shown us.
In a couple months, the camp will start holding Bounceback weekends, where about 20 kids at a time are brought in for a 24 hour gathering. We'll be doing indoor shooting at these events. Can't wait til then, because even though some of these kids are 'challenging', most respond well, and it's as much fun for the coaches as it is for the kids. Thanks for bearing with with me on this rather lenghty photo post.
In addition to the archery, we have been given the opportunity to start an outdoors based mentoring program for selected teens. The program name is Bullseye Adventures, and our slogan is 'Make an impact'. (Many thanks to Gladiator for the logo design - I definitely tested his patience with this one.) /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif In addition to archery, we will be involving the kids in various aspects of hunting . . . I can't wait til youth season!!!
I want to give you a photo tour of the archery program at Wildwood, and let you meet some of the volunteers, plus the kids involved in the mentoring program.
Mallory was an incredible counselor, and she soaked up the archery training that was provided by Ironwood, Elkhunter, and Teeroy. In this photo, she is showing them how to handle and draw the bow. The two big kids at the end are Teeroy and BJ (LXshooter), and both are now volunteers for our upcoming Bounceback weekends.
One boy was having a pretty tough time shooting, and BJ jumped in and helped him. It made a great difference, and he began hitting the target. Having that kind of success makes a huge impact on the self esteem of these great young kids.
I called these young ladies the Bullseye Girls, and they just lit up when their arrows hit the target. And when they scored a couple of bullseyes, it was high fives for everyone! This was an extra special day, because my daughter, Molly went to the ranch with me to see what we do there. It was great to have her meet these kids.
I want to introduce you to our first two kids in our Bullseye Adventures program - Roy and Marina. They were both counselors-in-training at the camp, in the hopes that someday, they will mature into quality camp counselors. Roy is my young mentor friend, and Marina is paired up with Barb and Mike (Ironwood). They are great kids, and both definitely need quality guidance and role models in their lives. Ignore the orange paint, they were getting in 'costume' to play capture the flag.
I was able to take Roy to the recent 3D shoot hosted by the Mid-Iowa Archers. It was his first outing with the bow after a brief sighting-in session. We had a blast, and Roy has talked about it frequently. I was pleasantly surprised with how well he shot. We'll be back for the September shoot.
Although Marina wasn't able to be with us at this shoot, we paired up with Mike and Barb. Mike really came in handy with finding most of my stray arrows. Note - don't shoot against Barb, or you may get humbled.
I want to give a huge thanks to each volunteer who is a part of these archery and mentoring programs. As you can see, several of them are Iowawhitetail members - and I won't apologize if I embarrassed you by mentioning your names. I know that you don't do it for attention or kudos, but each of you are greatly appreciated by the Wildwood team. I want to give another shout-out to the Mid-Iowa Archers who volunteered to sponsor the Bullseye program this fall by helping Roy and Marina out with some hunting items, plus a generous offer by a member for taxidermy services. I just cannot express how grateful we are for the kindness that so many hunters and archers have shown us.
In a couple months, the camp will start holding Bounceback weekends, where about 20 kids at a time are brought in for a 24 hour gathering. We'll be doing indoor shooting at these events. Can't wait til then, because even though some of these kids are 'challenging', most respond well, and it's as much fun for the coaches as it is for the kids. Thanks for bearing with with me on this rather lenghty photo post.
