That weird spell between Christmas and New Year will always see a half year anniversary for my “little business”. So make yourself a nice warm brew and let’s catch up with my numbers to date.
Dad was so proud and excited of the 6 months in 2022 and I will be forever thankful that he got to see that after the support he gave me when I was setting up. Now I share because it’s important to be able to see what I am doing for perspective on the tough days, doing things alone can be hard work at times.
For anyone who wants to read previous anniversary stats here are a few links –
1st year June 2023 –
2nd year June 2024 –
https://integr8archery.com/2024/06/28/happy-2nd-birthday-week-104-🥳
3 months into my third year –
https://integr8archery.com/2024/09/17/weeks-115-116-sorry-not-sorry-❤%25EF%25B8%258F🏹
So here we are are, (yes it’s 4 days late – day job😉) 24th December 2024 = 2 years and 6 months
The last 3 months have seen –
Education – made up of 14 secondary schools, 4 primary schools and 2 colleges = 183 people
SEN and Disability groups – 27 people
Seniors – 41 people
Children in Care – 18 people
Activity Groups – 53 people
These are all new hands holding bows, some of these have stayed shooting and joined our sustainable groups, some shot for a few weeks and some tried just once, the most important thing is that everyone enjoyed it!
1st year totals – 2061
2nd year totals – 1873
3rd year, half way point – 757
= 2 and a half years = 4691 individuals with bows in their hands – not at all bad in my opinion!
Thank you as always to every coach or helper that I have had, and to those who have trusted me to introduce them to the sport that I love, it’s a pleasure to see you go from anxious anticipation to relaxing and smiling and believing in yourself.
I give a lot of hours to this and they are all unpaid, Integr8archery CIC is not for profit, some of the work undertaken by coaches is paid but in return they offer me free hours too because we all believe in getting sport into places where people think it is not within their reach.
I have been successful in claiming some time back for myself and my own shooting which has seen this last 4 months become really enjoyable and some of those hours have just been moved to other existing volunteer roles, particularly safeguarding. My average hours for Integr8archery CIC are 21 per week, so I dropped over a third in the last 2 years, no small achievement. Yes there is a correlation between hours given and numbers, that’s clearly seen but I am ok with that, show me another non for profit company run by 1 person who is achieving more than I am, I will congratulate them but balance is important for my own health and I am stronger now and more settled. Thank you to everyone who believed in me in the summer of 2022 because I didn’t, and you gave me the courage that I had lost 🥰
See you all in 2025 – and remember if you stand next to me for long enough, you will no doubt find a bow in your hands 😂
