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  • Carson Starnes, a 6-year-old student at Cullman City Primary School, zeroes in on the bull’s eye Friday during a friendly competition to end the city Parks and Recreation Department’s third annual archery summer camp. Rob Ketcham

    Carson Starnes

  • Bailey Smith, right, a 9-year-old East Elementary School student, and Aubrie Kennamer, a 9-year-old student at Arab Elementary School, anxiously wait Friday while city archery director Laura Shedd tallies up their scores. Rob Ketcham

    Archery camp

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June 16, 2012

LOCAL SPORTS: Community Archery Park hosts third annual summer camp

By Rob Ketcham The Cullman Times

CULLMAN — Nearly 40 kids were on hand at the Cullman Community Archery Park this week for the city Parks and Recreation Department’s third annual archery summer camp. From early Monday morning to late Friday afternoon, participating youngsters learned about a wide range of topics, including tournament shooting basics, woodland education and wildlife.

“Most of the children who come to archery camp aren’t involved with other sports,” said Laura Shedd, the city’s archery director. “If there wasn’t an archery camp going on, they would be at home this week watching television. We put away the video games. We put away any indoor activities they’re probably used to doing.”

Part of the week’s festivities included a visit from a state wildlife offical, who taught the group of 7-14 year olds about animals indigenous to Alabama, their habitats and tree stand safety. According to Shedd, they gave the kids plenty of opportunities to ask questions and even allowed the children to climb a 20-foot tree stand.

“It was a very interactive hour with our state representative that comes,” she said.

One camp guest discussed modern archery equipment and its uses, while others touched on the way traditional archers made bows and arrows thousands of years ago. Shedd said one of the week’s highlights came when Anthony Parker, from Parkers Wildlife in Hanceville, demonstrated how to make a primitive arrow from scratch using only a turkey feather and piece of river cane.

“They loved that, of course,” she said.

As would be expected at a summer archery camp, kids were also trained about appropriate conduct on the range. Shedd said her goal was to teach the tykes how to shoot in a manner that emphasized safety. The camp concluded Friday with a friendly shooting competition.  

“It has been a very energetic week,” Shedd said. “The first couple of days, it’s hot and it takes them some time to get used to it. But they keep going right along. I think the biggest excitement for them is just being out here in the park, in the woods and getting to do things they don’t normally get to do.”

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department will hold another summer archery camp July 9-13. It will be very similar to the first version, but Shedd said she plans to alter the activities slightly because of the likelihood of children from the first camp coming back for more. The cost to participate in next month’s camp is $100. For more information or to register, call the Cullman Civic Center at 256-734-9157.

Cullman’s archery park, the second of its kind in the state, is open seven days a week. The facility holds camps and lessons year-round and also hosts a full slate of tournaments during the summer. The Bowhunter’s of Alabama regularly compete at the park, as does the Junior Olympic Archery Development program and the city archery team.

“Archery is one sport that parent and child can do together,” Shedd said. “My son and I compete together. We can stand right beside each other and shoot at the same time.

“It’s a good family activity, and it’s something they can do from a very early age on up to later adulthood. It’s a lifelong sport.”

Rob Ketcham can be reached at 256-734-2131, ext. 257 or at robk@cullmantimes.com.

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