Archery In The Schools

A Great Program Keeps Growing March 30, 2011 Reporter: Patrick McMurtry Videographer: Brad Rice

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EYEWITNESS ONLINE WEBCAST VIDEO

That's a sweet sound to the hundreds of kids competing in this year's Archery in the Schools state tournament. This program is only 7 years old and it just keeps growing. Scott Warner with The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources says the program just keeps growing.

"We started the program in 2004, since then we've had 55,000 students go through the program. This marks the 6th year of us sponsoring an archery tournament, each year we break another record. We have 625 kids participating in this one day event and 60 different divisional teams from around West Virginia." says Warner.

And with that many kids, you know there are thousands of relatives in the stands showing their support. This is a monster event and Warner says it keeps growing, keeps working because of the involvement of a lot of folks.

"It's only possible because the West Virginia Department of Education bought into the program, so we've got interest spread out throughout the state of West Virginia that are doing this. What we're doing is training the trainers, hosting the state archery tournament, we're responsible for coordinating it, but the volunteers from all over the state, giving up their Saturday to pull arrows for kids they'll never know." says Warner.

Kids who, hopefully, will be pulling arrows themselves five or ten years from now. Warner spearheaded this program for the DNR and he says the success of the Archery in the Schools program surprised even him.

"We knew it would be a success, we didn't know it was going to take off. It's grown faster than we can keep up with it. Now it's developed into a full time position." says Warner.

And it's in position to keep growing and break another record next year, and you can bet, we'll be there.

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