Our Educational endeavors

Protecting and Promoting the Outdoors

The Mid-Atlantic Bowhunters Chapter believes that education is key to protecting our hunting heritage and preserving the natural world. We support organizations that teach archery, the shooting sports and wildlife education to our youth, educators or anyone with an interest. Our objective is to promote education that cultivates a love for the outdoors and thereby raises awareness of wildlife and the lands they live in.

Nanzhila Basic School in Zambia

MABC has partnered with Shawn Bird, of Balla-Balla Safaris, to raise funds for the Nanzhila Basic School in Zambia. The Nanzhila Basic School is one of the first schools started in the Southern Kafue area and is vital to the education of the local people. However lacking any real support and funds, the school became seriously run down and lacked educational materials. Working with Balla-Balla Safaris, MABC has helped the school to raise funds to achieve two primary goals; namely, 1) to improve the school and turn it in to a place where the children would feel proud to attend and 2) to add a wildlife education section to their curriculum. We believe that education about wildlife at a basic level is the key to the protection of wildlife for future generations to come.

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National Archery in the Schools Program

The National Archery in the Schools Program is an in-school program aimed at improving educational performance among students in grades 4th – 12th. The VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has trained and certified over 2800 school teachers and youth leaders to provide archery instruction to VA youth during in-school classes. MABC was honored to donate to schools like these who are implementing the NASP program.

Virginia 4-H Shooting Sports Ambassador Program

The Virginia 4-H Shooting Sports Ambassador Program is comprised of 4-H youth from across the state. Throughout their two-year term, Ambassadors serve as liaisons between 4-H Shooting Education members and the Virginia 4-H Shooting Education Council. Additionally, they advocate for continued support of 4-H Shooting Education and promote general firearm safety among peers and adults alike, all the while developing and strengthening essential life skills taught by the 4-H organization. These elite 18 Ambassadors have been chosen based on their academic merit, community service activities, and demonstration of leadership abilities within Virginia 4-H. MABC is proud to support the Virginia 4-H Ambassador Program.

Frederick County 4-H Shooting Education Club

The Frederick County 4-H Shooting Education Club’s purpose is to stimulate personal growth for our members through development of marksmanship skills, while having fun learning practical skills including gun and archery safety. We also emphasize opportunities for developing leadership skills that will be valuable to them in the future, such as public speaking, organization, team work and responsible citizenship. MABC proudly donates to the Frederick County 4-H Shooting Education Club.

American Wilderness Leadership School

Each year, MABC has the opportunity to sponsor a teacher at SCI Foundation’s American Wilderness Leadership School (AWLS). AWLS is an eight-day conservation education program where teachers learn how to incorporate conservation education lessons into existing curriculum; such as, math, science, language arts, social studies, physical education and art. Educators learn to effectively use the outdoors as a classroom while participating in fun, exciting activities, including an introduction to shooting sports and a whitewater rafting trip on the Snake River.

Lovettsville Game Protective Association

Lovettsville Game Protective Association holds an Annual Youth Fishing Derby each spring. MABC has supported this activity with a financial contribution and participation at the event. After the kids are done fishing, they can visit the MABC booth where they had a chance to experience the wide outdoors with displays of animal hides, skulls and footprints. The highlight was the shooting range where the chapter showed them how to hold a bow and shoot an arrow.