Williamsburg, KY – Young Guns Archery, LLC is an organization created to promote youth archery and bowhunting through education, coaching, and mentorship. The owners, Heath and Julie McDonald take their mobile trailer to ASA and S3DA events, as well as local archery pro shops and hunter safety classes. The Young Guns Archery trailer features a mobile range that provides youth archers the opportunity to shoot youth dimensioned bows from top manufacturers who are Young Guns Archery sponsors in a safe and controlled environment.
Heath and Julie McDonald are certified S3DA Advanced Instructors, Ohio Hunter Education Instructors and Dayton Metro Park – Youth Bowhunter Team Leaders. As the parents of two archers, a left-handed girl, and a right-handed boy, they experienced first-hand the difficulty of finding quality equipment that their kids could enjoy and shoot successfully. They created this company to provide youth the opportunity to shoot various manufacturers’ bows to help them evaluate what bow they would like to purchase which will in turn provide their sponsors with life-long customers.
Heath is the driving force for this organization, and he has a passion for youth archery and conservation. He sacrifices family-time, money, and resources to drive hundreds of miles just so kids can have the opportunity to try out different bows and set-ups. Basically, manufacturers send bows to Heath and he drives all over the country with them, so that when a kid wants to try a bow, he can set it up for them and allow them to try it out. Heath has made a lasting difference in the lives (and archery careers) of hundreds of kids. Heath is a great guy who supports youth archery of many different avenues (S3DA, NASP, JOAD) and he has helped many kids learn a new passion in archery and the outdoors. S3DA is proud to present Heath McDonald as the 2020 recipient of the Friends of S3DA award.
When receiving the award Heath said, “I was a little blind-sided today by S3DA. This is very humbling and makes all of the hours feel worthwhile. I’m very grateful to everyone in S3DA and the archery community that had a hand in this. Julie and I love you all, almost as much as we love these kids! Thank you for taking the time to acknowledge our place in the archery community.”
About Scholastic 3-D Archery
Scholastic 3-D Archery (S3DA) is a unique, family-oriented youth archery program which has grown exponentially across the United States as a next-step initiative to follow introductory archery programs. The mission of the Scholastic
3-D Archery program is to foster, educate and guide youth in the areas of 3-D, indoor target, and outdoor target archery as well as safe, ethical bowhunting practices. The goal of the S3DA program is to provide archery and bowhunting opportunities to youth in after-school settings, as well as with archery-affiliated clubs and businesses in the community. S3DA students participate in 3-D and target archery using compound and traditional archery equipment. Students can participate at local, regional, state, and national archery events and earn college scholarships from colleges and universities across the United States. S3DA addresses the need for a program to bridge beginning target archery experience and more advanced activities such as 3-D shooting and bowhunting. The program currently operates across the United States with hundreds of certified coaches serving thousands of young archers, grades 3–12.
Contact the Scholastic 3-D Archery National Office at:
www.s3da.org or 225 North 3rd Street, Williamsburg, KY 40769, Ph: 606.524.3685
Media contact Kayla Bolton at kayla@s3da.org, Ph: 423.494.2204
