Archery Canada – OTTAWA (Archery Canada) – Archery Canada is proud to announce one of its top priorities for 2019, the revitalization of the popular Canbow Skills Award Program, is about to become reality thanks to the support of Cabela’s, the World’s Foremost Outfitter of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear.    

Archery Canada has received funding through the Cabela’s Canada Outdoor Fund, introduced in 2017 by Cabela’s Canada to ensure future generations enjoy hunting, fishing, camping and other recreational activities in the Canadian outdoors. 

The Outdoor Fund provides financial support to Canadian Organizations that support this vision and that focus their activities on four primary pillars: advocacy, education, conservation and helping others. The fund accomplishes this through the generous support of Cabela’s Canada customers who round up to the nearest dollar at checkout in their retail stores, through the call centre and online at cabelas.ca.

“I am very excited to welcome Cabla’s support to our upgrade of the Canbow program. This program is an important process to help archers gauge and document their improving progress in their archery journey,” says Archery Canada President Al Wills. “Canbow has always been a popular and important program for Archery Canada, but is showing it’s age. The support of Cabela’s will allow us to improve the program , while partnering with provincial affiliates to improve and replace similar programs they are using. “

Archery Canada developed its Canbow program to provide archers with the necessary skills to progress in the sport, with Canbow acting as the entry pathway for young archers as they develop skills and techniques of shooting a bow as well as the rules of safety and etiquette in the sport. The program was first published in 1994 for indoor and outdoor target archery. In 2001, it received an update and introduced a program for 3D archery, a growling discipline in Canada at the time, which continues to grow today. In order for the program to fulfill its purpose, it needs to be reviewed and refreshed, seeking ways to modernize if for the youth of today. 

The Canbow program will be reviewed and redesigned to ensure it is current, aligns to the long term athlete development model, and includes increased resources to guide beginner to advanced archery programs. The program will be expanded to be designed for various types or programs, including registered archery clubs, Park and Recreation departments, camps, archery stores, and other community-based organizations. 

The target date for the launch of Archery Canada’s revitalized Canbow Skills Award Program is May-June 2020.