Archery!

I feel really, really lucky that our council is willing to start girls with Archery at a young age! Several of the girls in our troop tried it for the first time when they were only five years old. The first time my daughter shot was a great experience. She is sensitive to certain sounds and was very scared by the whooshing the arrows made. Even though she'd been very excited about trying it, she panicked and cried and didn't want to do it. The other girls in our troop all rallied around her and told her stories of time when they were scared to do things, but then tried it and liked it. The cheered for her when she went up and gave it a try. I was so proud of all of them! Because of their support and her willingness to give it a try, they earned the Sister to Every Girl Scout petal, and she earned Courageous and Strong.



A couple years later, they are still extremely interested in Archery and all want to take part in it whenever they can. Since they all feel so strongly, we got the archery instructor from our council to come out and do a day just for us. The girls went over the safety rules and commands, got to shoot, got practice strings, made their own arm guards, and got to shoot again during the four hours we were there. The Brownies also got to earn the Council's Own Archery Try-It. They've definitely improved as time goes on - my daughter hit the target several times and was very proud of herself!