For Immediate Release: Olympic Archery in Schools Program Soars into San Diego County

MEDIA CONTACT:
Adriana Herrera
ERA Communications
(619) 573-9372 office
(808) 990-1943 mobile

**Easton Foundations give local students opportunities to experience archery**

SAN DIEGO - Children in San Diego County schools continue to miss out on essential physical education and afterschool programs as a result of strained school budgets. The Easton Foundations have found a way to regenerate the disappearing physical education and afterschool programs through the establishment of the Olympic Archery in Schools program (OAS). The Easton Foundations' new archery program aims to give students FREE exposure to the sport and grant archery training and equipment to schools. They are currently accepting applications from schools interested in participating in the OAS program.

"Our goal is to grant children who otherwise may never have exposure to archery an opportunity to experience the sport,” said Easton Foundations Director Don Rabska. “As children develop archery skills we will look to identify competitors for additional opportunities that may eventually lead to a position on the US Olympic archery team.”

The Easton Foundations will provide equipment to the first 100 schools that complete the required 8-hour training and certification class. Once completed, each school will receive archery equipment, valued at $250 per student, as well as on-going archery instructor training and liability insurance for the program. To cultivate student interest, the Easton Foundations will also coordinate pro-bono local, regional, and state archery tournaments where students participating in OAS will have an opportunity to be scouted by national level archery coaches.

The next San Diego County certification training will be held Saturday, May 30, 2009. To participate, schools can register online at http://www.esdf.org (click on the “Olympic Archery in Schools” tab and look for “Teacher Certification”).

The Easton Foundations believe the program will develop a pool of Southern California archery talent that will eventually feed into the national and Olympic archery teams training and competing at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista.

Ranked next to bowling and tennis as one of the top 20 safest sports, archery provides students with self-discipline, self-confidence, enhanced fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination.

For more information on school registration, call the Easton Foundations at (818) 787-2800, or contact local OAS Coordinator Tara Robey at (858) 254-4058.

About the Easton Foundations
The Easton Foundations were established by Jim Easton in order to educate and expose people to the sport of archery. The Foundations work to develop future Olympians through the establishment of grassroots archery programs that provide multiple opportunities to participate in the sport.

For more information about the Easton Foundations or the OAS program, visit www.esdf.org or email OAS@esdf.org.

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