LOCAL SPORTS: “His Pins” Archery Camp Starts Next Week

by Jake DeLuca

It’s the middle of July and summer vacation is in full swing for most K-12 students in Armstrong county, leaving nothing but time to fill. Luckily for kids ages 9-15 there is an archery camp starting next week.

The Salvation Army has been hosting this event since 2014, along with their numerous other camps they hold throughout the year. Lieutenant Amber Imhoff went on to explain the archery camp.

“Our archery program is called “His Pins”, because in archery you shoot for pins and we want our young people to shoot for God’s pins in life and stay focused. Archery is a really great way for kids to get focused skills, in a day and age where we are very technology driven and everything is flashing, instead of having to just focus on one thing. It’s a good program,” Lieutenant Amber Imhoff said.

Lieutenant Imhoff explained more details about the camp.

“ It (“His Pins”) is here at the Salvation Army (in Kittanning) so the parents are responsible for dropping their kids off and picking them up as well. We do provide a snack every day. When we started an archery program, people couldn’t believe that we could host it here, but the yellow room is pretty big. We have two Kevlar screens, one is for in the yellow room and the other is outside, we also have twenty bows, so we have quite a bit of equipment,” Imhoff explained.

“His Pins” follows a curriculum that was originally started in Ohio, and once Imhoff learned about the company she knew that what they had to offer would fit well in western Pennsylvania.

“We follow is a curriculum that is made by Heart of the Outdoors, which is based out of Ohio. They have programs for archery, gun shooting, and hikes through the mountains for young people and adults. We figured that this would be a good fit in western Pennsylvania because most kids like to shoot something. It gives them all of the basic skill, they don’t need to have ever shot a bow before to participate. We have kids who come back multiple times just for the fun of it, like I said they look forward to the candy bar shoot on the last day.

If you or someone you know is interested in the “His Pins” archery camp you can go to the Salvation Army office located at 205 S Jefferson St. or you can find a sign up sheet online on the Kittanning Salvation Army Facebook page under the “youth programs” folder in the photos tab.