You know those mornings when you wake up and you just know it's going to be a great day? Well this was one of those mornings for me. It was the day of the workshop I've been organizing for the past 9 months. Finally here & man was I ready for it!
In case you haven't been following...this workshop was developed to provide a fun, exciting, and safe opportunity for women with disabilities to experience rifle shooting and archery in a supportive environment. It's the first of its kind, I believe. With the support of the Wisconsin chapter of Becoming an Outdoors Woman, the idea for such an event finally became reality!
I arrived at the Columbus Sportsman's Club (CSA) to see a wonderful sight. A group of CSA and other instructors down by the rifle & archery ranges setting up the tents and arranging the various firearms & bows to be used. Others were under the clubhouse shelter setting up the area for lunch later on. The weather was perfect...mostly sunny, heading up to mid-70's with a slight breeze. And as people started to arrive and were greeted with homemade oatmeal raison cookies, I saw smiles everywhere.
It was easy to feel good about this day. Not only did I believe it was a wonderful opportunity for women with a disability to get outdoors and try something new and exciting, but I was fortunate enough to recruit the most amazing group of instructors and volunteers (with the help of my awesome friends and other contacts I've made through the year). If I could offer advice to anyone organizing an event, I would tell them you need 2 things to make it successful: 1. You better feel passionate about the concept; and, 2. Find good people who are also passionate about what you're trying to accomplish to help run the event. I had both!
We had ten women registered for this event. One ended up cancelling a couple days before. I must be really lucky or I connected well with the participants while registering them to only have one pull out. (We'll see next time when I do this again!) Either way I was happy because my goal was to have at least ten...9 was good enough for me this time. Actually the number was a perfect start because I also had a volunteer cancel on me the night before. It was a good number to work with for the first time which is another good piece of advice to consider if organizing an event the first time...keep it small and manageable. There's always time to grow!
As I said before, I had a great group of instructors. I had five for rifle and five for archery. They came from different places which I think added to the diversity of their experiences. The instructors were from the CSA club, the BOW program, Safari Club International - Badgerland, NRA & DNR hunter safety instructors, and one was an occupational therapy grad student from LaCrosse who had been in the military for a number of years. Many of them were gracious enough to bring firearms, ammo, sand bags, gun stands, blinds, different types of arrow tips, or other materials and info to create a well rounded experience. Here is a sample of the firearms and bows we had for the women to try:
1 Ruger 10/22 semi- auto;
2 Remington 597s semi-auto;
1 CZ452 American bolt action;
1 AK style 22 semi-auto;
1 Plinkster rifle (I am not sure what this one was);
1 .22 magnum bolt action;
1 7mm-08 bolt action youth rifle;
1 308 bolt action;
1 223 AR-15;
and a few pistols of different models/calibars.
In addition, we had Genisis compound bows and a few different crossbows. There was something for everyone.
After introductions and pairing participants with their volunteers for the day, two of the instructors gave a mini safe and proper gun/bow handling talk. This was reviewed again before each session. Then the women were divided into the two groups and sent to the ranges.
(I'm going to backup here a bit. A week earlier I visited CSA again to go through the ranges to see what else we needed to make things accessible. One thing we discussed was that the existing rifle tables were too high to shoot from in a wheelchair. So we brought over a banquet table and raised it enough to make it work. The rifle tables are not movable, so we knew we would have to put the extra tables in front of them to make it work. That told me I needed to group the participants by whether or not they needed to shoot from a wheelchair. Another thing I saw was that there wasn't enought targets on the archery range for all 4-5 women in the group to shoot at the same time. So, I knew there would need to be some adjustments to my original plan there. Also, since there is no shade on the archery range, I knew I'd need to bring in tents so no one would overheat. We checked out the 3D range and determined which sections of the course were accessible enough.)
This being the first time running this event, I knew there may be some parts of my "plan" that would need to be changed as we went along. That's why I kept it pretty simple. Also, I had no worrries with this group of instructors because I had enough confidence in their judgements to adjust things. I'd like to add how impressed I was with how well the instructors colaborated together. The instructors grouped themselves so there were 6 on the rifle range and 3-4 present on the archery range. This worked well since there were so many models of rifles, and it allowed the instructors to setup stations at the rifle range so the women could experience the different firearms better. On the archery range, they setup two stations...one for compound bow and the other for crossbow with targets at farther distances.
The first group at the rifle range were all women who needed to shoot from their wheelchairs. The tables were set up but we were a little slow at getting enough pieces of lumbar to put under them to make them the right hieght. After Mike Fredericks (instructor from CSA) reviewed safe handling of guns, the women and their volunteers met with their instructor. Mike, Bill Martin, Ken Heim, Ray Anderson, Steve Giles, and Amy Burns were the instructors. They didn't start out with the stations with the first group right away...that was determined after they began. The space with the extra tables was a little tight with manuevering the wheelchairs around, so I would make some changes to that next time around. However, after everyone settled into their roles, I got to see some great teaching, adapting & shooting. The women were able to shoot at targets at 25 yds, 50 yds, and 100 yds. The instructors even broke out the pistols with a closer target for those interested in trying. Some of the volunteers even got a chance to test their skill with some of the rifles (including myself). I think the AR-15 assult rifle and the hand pistol were the hot items sought out.
At the archery range was the group of 4 who could walk or get out of her chair to shoot (except for one who used a scooter and could adjust it to work with varous shooting surfaces/positions). Irene Pawlisch (CSA instructor) reviewed use of compound bows, different types of arrow tips, and where the vitals were on the 3D targets. She also brought a blind for the women to checkout and experience shooting from if interested. My friend Tim Austin, a disabled archer/hunter, was at the archery range to offer support & suggestions from his own experience; Brian Austin instructed on the crossbow; and Irene, Diane Lueck, and Gerry Kraus were on compound bow. Besides the 3D deer targets, there were bullseye targets with balloons to add a bit more excitement when hitting the target. Even though not all the women could be shooting at once, they seemed to really enjoy watching and visiting under the tents until it was their turn. Next year I would like to have more models of bows/crossbows, targets and instructors at the archery range though. The women seemed to really get into the skill involved in shooting a bow.
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A good indication that all were having fun was how hard it was to get everyone to take a break for lunch. It seemed like the participants and instructors were so engrossed in what they were doing they forgot it was already noon! It was a treat to see and hear the sharing of experiences and camradery as they all headed up to the club house shelter for lunch outside.
Before lunch, we took the opportunity to take a group photo in front of a beautiful berm at CSA.
While the first groups were shooting, Peggy Farrell and Marlene Janowski were busy preparing a small feast for lunch. They made chicken and rice in a Dutch oven, salmon filets in the smoker/grill, spinach and strawberry salad, vegetable pasta salad, chips and watermelon. There were jugs of sun brewed tea, lemonade and soda. For dessert, you had your choice of homemade (by Marlene) cherry or blueberry cheesecake. We were all stuffed!
After lunch we switched the groups and headed back down to the ranges for round two of the workshop. Pretty much the same setup except the groups had swapped ranges. We got rid of the extra tables at the rifle range since this group was able to use the existing tables. At the archery range, there was a little extra time needed to work with some of the balance issues because of lack of trunk use. The second round seemed to flow a bit more smoothly, understandablely so. But overall, there was still the same level of excitement when a bullseye was hit and participants cheered each other on as they saw each other progress.
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It was again difficult to get everyone to conclude their shooting...even after a long day of it. We again gathered up under the shade of the club house shelter to wrap up the workshop. While everyone was getting situated, we handed out evaluation forms to be filled out by all! It was clear this workshop was a blazing success and we were going to be offering it again. The evals would help us to work out some of the bugs and make it even better!
We concluded by thanking everyone who made this possible...and that's an understatement. Peggy gave a brief overview of the BOW program and shared that this year is its 20th anniversary, and that they would be celebrating it at one of their signature weekend workshops up at the Treehaven Lodge. What a milestone. I find it fitting that it's also the year they help organize the first workshop for disabled women. I don't think there was a person there that didn't feel proud of being part of that.
It was important to me that this experience not end here for the women. So I discussed with them the opportunities for continuing their shooting practice. Also, for up to five of the participants from this workshop who are interested in taking their shooting experience beyond target practice, we will be organizing a learn-to-hunt deer hunt in the early fall. Three of the women already mentioned interest in this!
The event ended with lots of smiles & hugs. I couldn't be happier with the outcome of the first shooting workshop for disabled women!
I'd like to extend a big thank you to our spirited volunteers who helped make this an empowering experience for the participants, and to the Columbus Sportsman's Association for allowing us to host our event at their beautiful facility...with a special thank you to Bill Martin for all his extra involvement in preparing the club and Peggy Farrell for helping me with planning the event. Also to our sponsors, Becoming an Outdoors Woman Inc., Wausau Police Benefits Association, Safari Club International - Badgerland, Whitetails Unlimited - Columbus Chapter, Columbus Community Hospital, Vortex Optics and Adaptive Sportsmen for their contributions to our mission.
