PENINSULA DAILY NEWS for Sunday, March 30, 2014 SECTION
C
Brittainy Girr pulls back the bow for a shot on the Wapiti Bowmen’s archery course.
JOE SMILLIE (3)/PENINSULA DAILY NE EWS
BY JOE SMILLIE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Brittainy Girr had just rounded a tree in a dense forest outside of Port Angeles when she saw a ferocious beast. She reached in her quiver for an arrow, nocked it to her bowstring, drew it back and let it fly, hitting — yes! — the Tyrannosaurus Rex right in the kill zone. “Usually, we just shoot at cardboard boxes and plastic bottles in the backyard,” Girr said as she approached the target to retrieve her arrow. “This is a lot more fun.” Truth be told, the dinosaur, holding a stuffed bunny in its clutches, was made out of a plastic foam material — one of the realistic animal targets set out for the Wapiti Bowmen’s 3-D Fun Shoot on March 15. Girr, manager of the UPS store in Port Angeles, recently took up archery with her father, Hector Girr. “It gets us away from the Xbox,” Hector Girr said. Getting new archers
excited about the sport is part of the draw of the 3-D shoot, said Wapiti Bowmen club member Scott Gordon, an experienced archer who has downed real-life impala and bison in addition to shooting down the models on the Wapiti practice course at 374 Arnette Road in Port Angeles. “This is what it’s all about,” Gordon said, “helping new archers find out how much fun and how much of a challenge this can be.”
tional recurve bows and arrows can be purchased for around $100. Hector Girr said his compound bow, which allows better control over arrows, came in a package for $149. Gordon leads classes in the Wapiti Bowmen clubhouse, part of the club’s 20-acre complex, on a donation basis. He’s trained 75 new shooters since December, with 30 of them joining the club.
50th year
Physical education
The Wapiti Bowmen Archery Club is now in its 50th year of training new archers and bringing together the more experienced. With more than 140 members, it is one of the larger archery clubs in the state, Gordon said. The club has produced archers who have gone to claim championships in state and national competitions, but one of its primary goals, Gordon said, is to help new archers find their skill. Beginner sets of tradi-
The club also helps train Sequim School District elementary students in archery as part of the physical-education curriculum, something Gordon said the club is hoping to expand into the middle and high schools, and maybe even Port Angeles schools. A family membership in the Wapiti Bowmen, chartered with the National Field Archery Association and the Washington State Field Archery Association, is $60. An individual membership is $50. TURN
TO
nock
Archery group’s targets go 3-D -D for realism realism, fun HEALTHY DOSE OF ADVICE GET A
CLUB/C2
RIGHT: Scott Gordon, hunting director for the Wapiti Bowmen, lines up a shot on the club’s practice course outside Port Angeles. BELOW: Brittainy Girr goes to retrieve arrows out of a dinosaur target as her father Hector Girr, right, admires her shot.
SATURDAY
APRIL 12 11AM-4PM
, `ÞÊ,Õ Ê8886 ÊUÊ >ÞÊ£nÊ Doors Open at 10:45am
FREE EVENT at Jefferson Healthcare Hospital Presented by Medical Experts FROM Jefferson Healthcare, Swedish Medical Center and Harrison Health Partners
v ÀÊ ÀiÊ v À >Ì \Ê jeffersonhealthcare.org/events Topics to include
Barrett Christy
431011512
/ iÊ i iwÌÃÊ vÊ À ÃÃÊ/À> }ÊqÊ*iÀv À > ViÊEÊ ÕÀ ià Keynote Speaker -« ÀÌÃÊ VÕÃÃ Ê `i Ì wV>Ì ÊEÊ > >}i i Ì Former Olympian, and the most -« ÀÌÃÊ i` V iÊEÊ ÕÃVÕ Ã i iÌ> Ê1 ÌÀ>Ã Õ ` decorated female snowboarder in X-Games history. } Ê Ìi à ÌÞÊ ÌiÀÛ> Ê/À> }ÊqÊ iÃÊ ÌÊ,i> ÞÊ7 À ¶ S PLU Healthy Cooking Demonstrations & Physical Therapy Screenings UÊ UÊ UÊ UÊ