Carolyn Hanosek readies her bow for a shot during an archery demonstration at Chapman Hill Elementary School on Feb. 26, 2020 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Five students stood on a taped line in the Chapman Hill Elementary School gym, waiting for a whistle.
Then, each student raised a bow, drew an arrow back and let it fly, hitting targets on the other side of the gym and drawing applause from waiting classmates.
“They’ve done really, really well,” said student Carolyn Hanosek, who’s helped coach her peers based on her archery experience at summer camps.
The west Salem elementary school recently started an archery club, joining about 150 Oregon schools participating in the National Archery in Schools Program. The program provides $3,000 of archery equipment to participating schools so long as it’s used at least 10 hours per year.
Stephanie Rustad at the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife runs the state program with federal money that comes from a tax on shooting equipment and ammunition, including bows and arrows.
Though it’s not a traditional sport, archery has many benefits, she said. It’s a sport nearly anyone can do and doesn’t discriminate by age or gender. For kids who don’t feel connected to school, it can give them an incentive to come to class.
She said one southern Oregon school she worked with had a student who was close to getting suspended and known for bad behavior in class. When the school started an archery program, it was the motivation he needed to improve.
“He totally turned his life around so he could participate in archery,” Rustad said.
Tonya Hodsdon, a fifth-grade teacher at Chapman Hill Elementary School, points to the parts of a bow as her students identify them during an archery demonstration on Feb. 26, 2020 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
At Chapman Hill, fifth-grade teachers Janet Dangaran and Tonya Hodsdon and PE teacher Diana Wanek learned about the program last spring and attended a training so they could help students learn archery.
“You don’t have to be athletically inclined to do it. Some kids, they don’t like football, they don’t do basketball,” Hodsdon said. They opened the program to all fifth graders, and two special education students were part of the first class of 10 kids participating.
Hodsdon said they hope to get students interested in the sport so they could pursue it further through clubs like 4H outside of school, and possibly earn scholarships or other opportunities through competitions.
The club is the first archery program in a Salem-Keizer public school. Roots Academy, a private elementary and middle school in south Salem, also has an archery program, Rustad said.
Chapman Hill fifth graders demonstrate their archery skills with string bows for parents in the school gym on Feb. 26, 2020 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Chapman Hill had so many interested students they drew names to pick the first class of young archers. The group met twice a week after school for five weeks. They learned to name the parts of a bow and arrow and worked on their upper body strength, doing exercises with stretch bands and practicing form with string bows.
Many students had trouble drawing an arrow back all the way when class began. But by the end, they were all shooting at, and mostly hitting, their targets.
The students demonstrated their skills for parents and family Wednesday, then invited parents to come take a shot. Hanosek coached her mother through the proper motions.
Most parents weren’t as successful as their students.
“A bunch of them hit the curtain because they aimed a little too high,” Hanosek said. But she acknowledged the parents in the room had done a good job of supporting their students by driving them home after practice.
Reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
