Osoyoos Traditional Archery School founder Brock Paton is thrilled several new members have joined the club over the past few weeks. Paton has helped coach club member Sarah Martin into Canada’s finest female archer since she joined in the summer of 2013. (Keith Lacey photo)
After going public with a plea for support, the Osoyoos Traditional Archery School is back in business with founder Brock Paton very excited about the future.
Less than a month ago, Paton made a public plea through the Osoyoos Times stating that if the club didn’t get more members in the near future, that he would have no choice but to fold the organization.
However, the public appeal worked as five families and a couple of other local residents have signed up.
This has brought a whole new level of enthusiasm to the club and the new membership fees will allow the club to continue into the foreseeable future, said Paton.
“We’ve got five new families on board and it has been so nice to see these moms and dads out with their kids on a regular basis over the past couple of weeks,” said Paton, who has proven himself to be one of the country’s top traditional archers as he’s captured numerous indoor and outdoor championships over the past five years.
“We were down to less than 10 members from our high of more than 50 members just two years ago and we needed something good to happen and it has, so I’m pretty excited.”
Because the Osoyoos Wildlife Federation’s rod and gun club up on Strawberry Creek is experiencing dwindling membership numbers, talks have been initiated to perhaps share that club’s facility up on Strawberry Creek Road with the Osoyoos Traditional Archery School, said Paton.
“The rod and gun club has seen a big dip in their membership over the past couple of years, so we’re engaging in talks to perhaps join up with them,” said Paton. “Our current outdoor shooting range isn’t far from the gun club as it stands and it would make perfect sense for us to join up with them as we used to have our shooting range on their property. Hopefully we can work something out that would be of benefit to both clubs.”
The recent influx of members will allow the club to operate early next spring, when another membership drive will hopefully attract even more members, said Paton.
“The new memberships have salvaged the club for now and I’m really excited about that,” he said. “Hopefully, these new members will ask some friends to join and we can get the numbers back up to where they were when we operated out of Desert Park a couple of years ago and had more than 50 members.”
Paton said he was reluctant to go public about the club’s dwindling membership numbers, but he truly believed there would be interest and he’s glad the recent article in the Osoyoos Times drew so much interest.
“Every single person who has joined up over the past few weeks mentioned the newspaper article, so I guess it worked,” he said. “I’m just glad that our numbers are back where they need to be to run a viable club and I’m confident we can get more people to join over the next few months.”
The club is starting a fundraising drive by selling bumper stickers and hot pepper paste to raise funds so that Paton and club member Sarah Martin can attend the world championships in Europe next fall.
Once the winter weather kicks in, members can still practice their skills at an indoor shooting range that will operate out of the Air Squadron facility in Oliver, said Paton.
Besides Paton, the Osoyoos club has produced two national champions among its current members, including current national women’s champion Sarah Martin and junior champion Alex Rousseau.
A club membership allows members to shoot arrows seven days a week if they so desire, said Paton.
Anyone wanting to more information or to join the Osoyoos Traditional Archery School can contact Paton at 250-485-7603.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
