Archery is a very popular activity for the Weyburn Wildlife Federation, since the group first started up in March of 2013. They have operated an indoor archery range at the Goodwater rink since July 2013, with a grand opening of the range held in February 2014.
The range provides 4,300 square feet of space, which has enabled members to practice no matter what the weather is, with six lanes available.
In a normal year, the WWF holds two 3-D shoots a year, one at the indoor range, and the other in the spring or early summer on a farm in the Trossachs area.
Due to COVID-19, the indoor range has not been able to be used in the last year, but the WWF also has an outdoor range set up at their clubhouse property at the former South Weyburn School on Highway 35 south of Weyburn.
The WWF has also helped introduce the National Archery in School Program (NASP) to schools in the Weyburn area as they have helped develop interest in the sport.
This began in October 2013, when Morley Forsgren, Kelly Kozij and Mark Kenway took the NASP instructor program along with five teachers from the Weyburn Comprehensive School, and one teacher from Fillmore school.
In school, the Comp only allowed high school aged students to take the course, so the WWF made it available to younger children. In November of that year, the WWF offered their first NASP archery course with 39 youth aged nine to 17, and with 11 adults.
In 2014, they had 47 students, then 50 students in 2015, 30 students in 2016, 37 students in 2017, 29 students in 2018, and 31 students in 2019, for a total of 263 students in the six-year period.
The NASP program is designed to teach the basics of archery, including archery history, safety, technique, equipment, mental concentration, core strengthening physical fitness and self-improvement.
Students shoot at a 80-cm bulls-eye tartet, with state-of-the-art bows provided.
Those interested in being a part of the Weyburn Wildlife Federation’s archery club, they must purchase a WWF membership as well.
A single membership in the archery is $100 plus $25 for the WWF membership. A family membership is $150 plus a family WWF membership of $35, and youth membership is $40 plus the youth wildlife membership of $10.
WWF memberships are available at the Prairie Sky Co-op’s Home Centre, Prairie Wind Recreation, Weyburn Home Hardware and Western Prime Meat.
