National Archery in Schools Program Announces 2011-2012 School Equipment Grants Program
OutdoorHub 08.25.11
The Easton Foundations (EF®) have again partnered with the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP®) to provide $300,000 in grant assistance for schools to enroll in this exciting program. Over the next few months, each of the 47 NASP® states, 5 Provinces, and Washington DC will be allocated $6,000. Last school year was the first time NASP® and EF® partnered to provide these equipment grants. While the grants were intended to assist 300 schools, 517 new NASP® schools actually received grants.
Once educators at a prospect school learn about NASP®, the next biggest obstacle to bringing archery instruction to their students is the purchase of the archery equipment kit. Thanks to very cooperative pricing by NASP® suppliers, the equipment kit costs a school far less than its retail value. Even so, it costs about $3,000 to outfit a typical Physical Education archery class of 24-36 students. NASP’s equipment specifications are highly standardized in every school world-wide. Each school uses the same bow and arrow. The Genesis by Mathews Archery is a high quality universal-fit compound bow designed for sharing among several student archers. The Genesis arrow was specifically designed by Easton Technical Products to be safe, durable, and effective for the archery student. This principle of every student using the same equipment in archery class makes certain the focus of student learning is on mastering the process of safe and proper shooting. If different types of equipment were used the teacher’s role would be more complicated, NASP®’s perfect safety record could be impacted, and the student’s mastery of how to shoot could be short-circuited.
Most of the more than 8,800 schools that have joined the program to date have been able to purchase their equipment with little help from outside sources. However, many schools are unable to raise this money without assistance. Some schools raise money locally among civic organizations, conservation clubs or chapters of the National Wild Turkey Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, or Safari Club International. Innovative teachers enlist the aid of parents to hold fund raising events to raise money for equipment. In many NASP® jurisdictions the fish and wildlife conservation agency provides grants for the purchase of school archery equipment kit.
To help alleviate financial barriers we at NASP® are excited about the generosity of the Easton Foundations® (EF®). EF® is a non-profit foundation established by James L. Easton for the purpose of training and developing a pool of world class archers able to compete at the highest levels. The strategy used to accomplish the Foundation’s purpose is the creation or support of programs to develop archers at many levels in order to strengthen and deepen the available talent pool. “The Easton Foundations have supported NASP® Schools for a number of years with equipment grants directly to the schools, support of the NASP® School Equipment Grant Program allows us to assist more schools and leverage the great work of the NASP® organization and State Coordinators”, commented Greg Easton from the Easton Foundations. For more about the Easton Foundations visit www.eastonfoundations.org
This grant offer is popular with coordinators who run NASP® in their respective states. Tim Beck, the Indiana DNR NASP® Coordinator reports, “These equipment grants have allowed many Indiana schools to join and participate in this unique and engaging program. There is no doubt, without this type of boost some of our students would not be able to join the fun.” Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission’s Steve Robbins tells us, “Our agency provides a limited number of grants to start new NASP® schools. These EF® and NASP® grants help even more private and public schools join Florida’s NASP® effort. We have teachers waiting and hoping the grant will be renewed this year.”
The National Archery in the Schools Program® is in its 10th year. If you would like to learn more about NASP® and how to help our nonprofit foundation bring the program to more students please check us out at: at: www.archeryintheschools.org or www.nasparchery.com
