Feb. 26, 2014

by Haley Beets

Archery has recently taken pop culture by storm: Katniss in the “Hunger Games” series, Legolas in “Lord of the Rings” and Hawkeye in “The Avengers.” The new campus archery club, The Arcus Guild, hopes to take University of Wisconsin-Whitewater by storm.

President Haley Ricker and secretary Samantha Opper had a long-term interest in archery. Opper grew up watching her dad bow hunt in their backyard. Ricker said she was enchanted by fantasy games and movies.

“I’m really into archery, because when I was younger, when ‘Lord of the Rings’ came out, I was really into Legolas,” Ricker said. “Legolas was my hero, I had a poster of him over my bed at eight years old.”

The Arcus Guild has been in discussion since last year, and Opper and Ricker had the initiative to finally put the club in motion.  Ricker and Opper said they have big ambitions for the club and archery on campus.

Ricker said current archery classes meet on the soccer field with portable targets, regardless of weather. Opper’s spring archery class was often affected by the weather.

“Over half of our archery classes were canceled because of rain,” Opper said.

Along with the occasional mud, the grass makes finding arrows a tedious process.

“One of our best long-term goals is to put an actual facility on campus for an archery range,” Ricker said. “So a concrete range with two to four lanes so that we have an indoor, a partially outdoor type of building.”

Ricker said her goal is for the finished archery range to be free and accessible to all students. Ricker also said a big factor in planning the range is sustainability.

Ricker said her research has turned up building methods like using plastic bottles for walls and paper bag flooring. These methods would reflect well on the club, the environment and the university.

Opper said she wants to collect recycling to create a range. She also said recycling would be a way to get everyone on campus involved by donating their old plastic bottles to designated Arcus Guild bins.

The  construction of a sustainable archery range sounds ambitious, but Ricker and Opper’s big plans don’t end there.

“We want to get involved with the Whitewater High School and teach them some of the skills of archery or demonstrate the safety rules and practices,” Opper said.

Ricker and Opper said they believe developing this relationship could bring unity between the high school and college, and even encourage some high schoolers to apply to UW-W.

The Arcus Guild meetings include archery-related workshops, field trips and of course, practice. Workshops will include everything from the making of a bow to basic safety. Ricker said she hopes to involve other campus organizations in these workshops, such as the bow-hunting club.

Meetings take place at 5:30 p.m. every other Thursday in Upham Hall Room 142. The next meeting is Feb. 27. According to flyers, the club is  “for all archery lovers, whether you like hunting, competition shooting, or just shooting for fun!”

Opper said archery is more than just a hobby.

“It’s a skill I think that everyone should know,” Opper said. “Just in case something like revolution or zombie apocalypse happens, where there’s no technology or power. You’ll have to fight to survive.”

For more information, send an e-mail to [email protected].