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Karen's CornerShoot Like A Girl Meets Brenda Valentine This year at the Archery Trade Associations Trade Show in Columbus, OH we got to meet the First Lady of Hunting, Brenda Valentine! I must say, I’m not often star struck, but to meet Brenda, a pioneer in promoting women in the outdoors, was a highlight of the show. I was out walking the floor and saw her, and I whispered to Andrea Murphy, one of our staff shooters, “Oh my gosh, That’s BRENDA VALENTINE!” I introduced myself and she was extremely gracious and kind and spoke with me for a few minutes and agreed to stop by our booth later. When she stopped by our booth, my excitement remained. I was able to talk with her about Shoot Like A Girl, and our mission of empowering women to participate in shooting sports with confidence. What was really awesome was that she was so approachable, and willing to share her experiences with us. She was so down to earth, and it was a joy spending time with her. Brenda is the National Spokeswoman for the National Wildlife Turkey Federation, a tv host, accomplished author and renowned hunter. She has spent her entire life promoting hunting. She grew up in a family, where they hunted to provide meat to eat. Interestingly enough, much of her good fortune came via her excellence in competitive archery; she earned great recognition in 1986, and won the IBO team national championship in 1991. The rest is history, as she was picked up by Bass Pro Shop, and began her career as a spokesperson for hunting. Since she has led the way for women in the sport, I was quite honored that she not only took time to visit with us, but talked about how we are continuing what she has done her entire career – encourage more women to participate in shooting sports. A portion of our visit was captured on video, check it out by clicking this link. I can’t stress how exciting it was to meet Brenda. Please visit Brenda Valentine’s website at brendavalentine.com to learn more about the First Lady of Hunting. More Than Archery Todd and I took the Shoot Like A Girl show on the road to Las Vegas for the NFAA World Archery Festival 2010. The show was a great success, and we helped several ladies find the bow that was right for them (with confirmed purchases). Test flight participants from the United States, England, Australia, Canada and Ireland were able to try bows from our eleven manufacturers. We had many new shooters too, and all of them loved shooting. We also introduced women to the multiple choices that we have available in hunting clothes. In truth, many of the guys were jealous, because the clothes that we offer are so ingeniously designed that they were wishing we had their sizes! Our booth was filled with ladies checking out gloves that actually fit, jackets designed for function and form and pants that came in all sizes (from x-small to xx-large)! All of the success we had at this show was great, but it fails in comparison to some of stories we heard from our clients who attended the previous year, and honestly reminds me that what Shoot Like A Girl is accomplishing is more than archery. One client in particular was Lois Petruzzo. She came up to me, and said, “I have to give you a hug!” We introduced her to archery through our Test Flights at the 2009 NFAA World Archery Tournament. She had never tried archery before, but had taken her daughter to archery practice and archery tournaments. Well, after we introduced her to archery, she went home and bought her bow with confidence from her local archery retailer, and well (this gives me chills), she competed in the 2010 NFAA World Archery Tournament! We hung the target from her last day at the tournament where she shot very well! But more than archery, it is heartwarming to know that this mom and daughter duo have spent all this quality time together doing something they both enjoy and love. We, at Shoot Like A Girl, are honored to have been part of something that is so much more than archery! |
