weekly update

week 113 – events for me and for others ❤️🏹

Helen Sharpe Joining forces for strength, Event recap, News, weekly update

This has been a crazy busy week, trying to fit everything in has been exhausting but I have pulled it off, I think 🤔

The meetings, online and in person were all attended. Crazy shifts at work all done and emotionally and mentally exhausting they were too. A couple of reviews were completed for existing projects. Plans to move short term to long term for 2 projects, created and discussed and now to get them up and running. The art show/auction attended and proud to have played a tiny part in raising money to enable Off the Streets to fund more bleed kits and I won the silent action for the piece that I had bid on!

Helping others to do their bits for the community is part if what we all do and when I get my desk set up in a few weeks this will be hanging on the wall close by for sure.

Saturday the decision was made to call of the activity session for the seniors group, where we are it was wet and incredibly windy, they had warned the tail end of the hurricane was going to hit but we had tried to remain optimistic 🤗

Sunday saw the National Flight Championships and I had decided to enter only 2 categories for a variety of reasons. In 2021 I came home with 4 golds, in 2022 I came home with two golds, a silver and a bronze. 2023 saw my flight interrupted for incredibly valid reasons. For 2024 I had originally set my goals as beat the 2 county records that I set in 2022 so that the new ones would see my club changed. Also to earn my next raptor badge having earned the Merlin in 2022.

The decision to shoot only 2 categories meant I would only have the chance to break my county record in Target Compound not exceeding 45lb. As I wasn’t going to be shooting the flight recurve bow. Break the county record I did, plus laid down the first of the 2 required distance to earn the kestrel raptor badge.

My little longbow measured in at 19lb which meant she was easily over matched in the Not Exceeding 35lb but I shoot this bow because it makes me smile.

I also ended the day with a silver medal in my compound category – not too shabby!

Monday saw the Northern Counties regional flight and here I achieved the second score I needed to claim my kestrel raptor badge 🥳

I also manage to beat my new county record for my target bow NE 45lb 🥳 excellent news

I am very happy, how could I not be, I am surrounded by amazing friends when I shoot flight and I would never change that! Flight is my most favorite form of archery but I have had to pay for putting my body through all of that 😱🤷‍♀️🫣

Tuesday I would gladly have stayed in bed but I had a session arranged for the amazing young people to have a session @ Kingswood in Corby. Another great session and thanking everyone as always for everyone’s warm welcome each time we come over.

The SEND sessions are an awesome chance for those who, for various reasons, have found other sports/activities are not right for them 🤗

I am incredibly proud of the young people who have helped me deliver the sessions over the summer, all 4 have been amazing 😎 thank you

The pointy sessions have been well attended and it’s been great watching the young people develop confidence with each session.

Without a doubt the theme of the week has been friendship, without it I would certainly have struggled in such a busy week.

Catch up with you all soon ❤️🏹

Week 112 – 26 months – it’s still unbelievable at times 😊

Helen Sharpe weekly update, Event recap

Another week in the bag, lots done too.

The Archery England Federation Cross Badges are almost up to date and it has been awesome seeing people pleased to have them and wearing them, picked up my shirt and hoody so now when I deliver in person I am on brand and I do love delivering in person.

Some planning and reviewing done and some admin, admin is so dull 😂 but I actually enjoy it I think it makes the OCD part of my brain happy 😃

I am currently dealing with 5 different safeguarding cases so please do have some patience as whilst we are looking after everyone these are a priority after my day job!

This week saw me deliver the first session to the group from Support Northampton. On a Saturday there are a group of like minded seniors who come together and try to stay active and also have some social time. These were a lovely group and there was lots of smiles and laughter and soft archery enjoyed by all. As we all know it doesn’t take long for a little competitive edge to kick in and this was no different 😂 but it was also very nice to see them supporting and encouraging each other. I am looking forward to our next session as they have borrowed the kit to deliver to another group, I cannot wait to hear how that went.

It was great to catch up with everyone at the Home Nations Cup and what a great event it was, great to see the fantastic feedback everyone is leaving. Well done to everyone involved.

Managed to spend some time sorting out my bow and very much improved and hopefully will manage a reasonable score at the Thoresby when I shoot for the county, but this weekend is all about flight for me ❤️🏹

Catch you all soon, enjoy the weather as the forecast is a little bit of a rollercoaster 🤞🏻

week 111 – where’s my coffee! 😂

Helen Sharpe weekly update, Quick catch up

What a very busy week!

Time set aside has let me get into the backlog of Archery England English Federation Cross claims and I am loving the messages from people receiving them ❤️🏹 thank you to everyone for the patience as I get this all organised.

Lots of planning meetings and this week will see the first session delivered for a new group, always exciting to get something off the ground 🥳

I have been a little out of contact due to some things happening at work which have had me doing some extra hours and also meaning when I have been at home I am shattered. I also swapped my weekend on this rota to allow me to attend the flight competitions later in the month so I worked this whole weekend which seems to have annoyed some archers?

Thank you to those who have been patient when waiting for me, to those who were not, apologies but remember archery and the many roles I have are volunteer so whilst I give 20 – 30 hours a week, demanding time isn’t going to help me find more!

I have also got a few safeguarding related things going on, these take my time, rightly so in my opinion but to give you some perspective I haven’t managed to pick up my own bow and shoot my own arrows since I returned from Dunster and I haven’t picked up a paintbrush since the weekend I went to the event at Nottingham so no, I don’t think I owe anyone an explanation for allowing myself an hour to go to a painting class on Thursday 🤔

Right off to make sure everything is in my archery bag for my session on Friday when we will finally get the tweaking done that we have known needs doing since the session we had at Christmas! So again, no I don’t need you to tell me what needs doing, trust me we know, but Martin and I always give everyone else our time 🫣 our own archery never comes first!

See you all soon 😊☕️🍪 and thank you for letting me get my moaning off my chest 😂

You are all awesome and I give you all everything that I can but sometimes I think you need reminding there’s a lot going on in the world 🙃

week 110 – busy, productive and fun 🤩

Helen Sharpe Event recap, weekly update
week 110 – busy, productive and fun 🤩

Tuesday was an excellent day, visiting youth festival at Lilleshall and catching up with friends, supporting some amazing juniors and having some conversations face to face to save some meetings. I took a couple of guests from Kingswood Urban Project too, letting them see our sport up close and in a competitive environment, both assure me they had a great day but also it was a great chance to see the sport I love and am so passionate about through other people’s eyes. Fresh perspectives are always a good way of reviewing what we see.

Some meetings, some confirmation of events allowing things to be firmed in the calendar and a Sunday morning brunch by the canal with archery friends as we put the world to rights – great fun.

DISC soft archery session and to help me and Archie this month the amazing Deb Horne who was visiting for the weekend lent a helping hand, I love this group and though we didn’t get many visitors this week it was nice to share it with a friend.

Despite the day job requiring a lot of my time this week I have kept on top of everything archery related from integr8archery to welfare officer and everything else I do too, thank you to the few people over the weekend who recognised what the last couple of weeks have demanded from me and sent me messages, never expected but always appreciated.

This coming week is mostly meetings, planning and work in the day job, except for Thursday which I have set aside for all things archery but in particular getting in control of the English Federation Crosses for Archery England. I am very much looking forward to get these little bits of shiny progress sent out for the archers to display in whatever way they do. For me it’s my hat, I know many decorate their quivers so I look forward to seeing some photographs of new bling soon.

Have a good week, stay in touch and for anyone who keeps an eye on my patterns for communication my weekend of working has changed to allow my to shoot my flight competitions so I will be working this weekend Friday afternoon until late Sunday evening.

week 109! 25 months 😎

Helen Sharpe weekly update, Event recap, Joining forces for strength

Back home saw a swift return to life! But weeks ago a trip to London had been planned for me and Rose as a late birthday trip for her. Her love of art saw a trip to frameless followed by shopping and an Italian dinner along with some little impromptu drop ins as we travelled the city. I love spending time with her, she’s amazing company and I am blessed to have amazing friendships with my children 🤗🥰 she’s mending well and we can see the possibility of normal being a very real thing for her, her determination over the last 9 months has been inspiring ❤️

County meeting, dealing with clubs across the region and a couple outside who want to engage to resolve the issues around welfare officers, some safeguarding matters and getting ready to take on the Archery England Federation Crosses all keeping me busy when I have not been at work this week!

The news that my hard work paid of and I have passed my PBS course 🥳 is rewarding, and that I have been asked to be one of a handful of people selected to be trained in how to deliver the 1 day course across the business, makes it very rewarding but I have to say, if anyone ever suggests an intense level 5 course – consider with caution, it’s usually over 2 years for a reason and 5 months was incredibly had work 😱🤔😳 but worth it in the end and I can go back to concentrating on my level 3 and level 4 courses, lots to do and equally intense subjects, but hopefully by the new year I will be able to look back with some pride over what I have achieved across the 3 courses.

A little bit of finalising plans for the coming weeks and that allowed me to focus on Monday’s session at Kingswood Urban Development Project, grateful to be indoors as the heat was somewhat intense! As previously we ran bookable SEND sessions in the morning and drop in sessions in the afternoon. Caught up with people we had seen before and saw lots of new people two, across the day we catered for around 50 people, great to see everyone and hope to see them next month. Some great feedback from both sessions but particularly around the SEND provision which is always great to hear, it’s good to know we are getting it right, whilst we plan with everyone when working together, we only know if it’s working by hearing from those who come along.

I had been asked by several people to drop in to Lilleshall for a catch up and to offer support at this year’s youth festival. I did just that and was joined by Rob and Aidan from Kingswood Urban Development Project who hopefully enjoyed it as much as they said, they were certainly good company. List of great matches, lots of hugs and catch ups and I collected those badges I will be setting out to get in the post soon. 😊

Some intense hours at work over the next week as we support a young person going through an especially difficult time so please be patient if that impacts my time here.

week 108 – headspace!

Helen Sharpe weekly update, Quick catch up

It didn’t take very long after getting home to feel like Dunster was a distant memory! Home Monday evening and back to work Tuesday for a late, sleep, early shift 🫣 great to see the young people but emotionally exhausted by the time I got home.

Resilience – Resilience is the ability to move through and grow from difficult times. It’s a skill you develop over time from the lessons and experiences you absorb as you grow up and face challenges.

Well I have that, thankfully!

A chat about my week and the issues I had in Dunster, sees the beginnings of a plan formed for moving forward, great stuff! A few weeks also where flight becomes my focus and so that will help me relax and process all that Dunster was. If we go back to 2022 I had planned a week in Dunster, since this was the 150th I made it two. 2025? I’m thinking at most, longbow day but unsure about going back, time will tell. It’s been great for teaching me things, for which I am grateful.

Whilst away I had attended a number of online meetings and stayed on top of messages so that made life much simpler on returning home, especially with the attention having to be firmly on work.

lots planned over coming weeks so I will be busy at least 😂

week 107 – busy and now I am at Dunster ❤️🏹

Helen Sharpe weekly update, Event recap

Lots of meetings last week to get some events finalised and myself ready to get to Dunster for 10 days.

After my trip to A&E and the issues with my health there had been some very real conversations with medical professionals about if I should cancel the trip. We agreed on 5 out of 8 days of shooting and the last weekend I would take on the 2 nationals. These decisions affectively halved the arrow count. I also agreed that I would be a responsible grown up and listen to my body and make reactive, responsible decisions throughout the trip.

Originally the plan had been to come down Friday and relax Saturday and shoot Sunday. However Jack and I had manage to get tickets to a through the night event at Warhammer on the Friday, knowing that I would be travelling to Nottingham and back and would be exhausted before setting off to Somerset, I decided that Sunday I would not take part in the Somerset County championships as my body would not be able to cope. Most definitely the right decision as just sitting on the range reading my book and resting to get over the previous few days still resulted in a lot of pain.

As a result when I woke up Monday morning and was still suffering I decided that the sensible thing would be to ditch the plan and shoot the short metric, half the arrows and a lot less walking. However when I got back at lunch time the incredibly heavy rain that had persisted through the morning saw a lot of archers stopping, the thing with sitting to shoot is that whatever the weather you are in it! You also get cold quickly as you aren’t moving around, so with the pain I was already carrying I withdrew, not wanting to risk the week when I could sit it out and enjoy the rest of the week!

Tuesday I got up, some mild pain in several areas but excited and looking forward to shooting!
Set up, start and some miscommunication saw me being told my arrows were consistently missing even when making lots of adjustments, so I decided to quit and stop shooting! Except I hadn’t missed and though low scores they were scores! So I had allowed comments to feed my vulnerable beliefs around my abilities! Except I hadn’t missed but by then it was too late I had withdrawn!

Today was longbow day, definitely got in the way of some very talented archers but they are all amazing and never shouted at me but accepted me and my lack of ability and let me join them. Our boss was calm and chilled and I have had a great day thanks to the people who shared their day with me. Thursday and Friday have been set aside for me to recover before the madness of the weekend and shooting the reduced week means I can explore, so explore we will ❤️🏹

Wednesday and longbow has a variety of dress options!😂

Week 106 – wow, such a lot crammed into this one!

Helen Sharpe Joining forces for strength, Event recap, weekly update

It’s been a busy 7 days!
Couple of safeguarding meetings that went well and hopefully issues can be resolved soon.

School games finals day, always great fun, the months of activity across the county and for many, the chance try new sports and choose one to focus on, and compete to get to finals day. Northamptonshire Sports do such an amazing job of ensuring teams, schools and providers all do what we need to across the months. Over 1100 children come together across the various sports and 10 school teams of 4 came together for the archery finals. Children from years 5 to 10 put on an amazing display and a great day was had.

The weekend saw JNOC and as I have withdrawn from AGB competition volunteering for this outdoor season it was a little strange at times but I had plenty to keep me busy. Supporting Rose is always great and a privilege, she blows me away. What she’s gone through since October would have stopped many but she has continued and the sport has, at times, kept her going. No medals but a well earned blue rose award.

In addition I was able to support the amazing team from Ebbsfleet Academy and have the rare chance to chat face to face with all of the committee and Deb managed to get a team photo of us all together ❤️🏹

I was able to support 9 other individuals and a few parents who I support always plus a bunch of others from across the county and wider, I am proud of everyone of them and saw some medals, some new PB’s, some English federation crosses and some rose awards claimed. As always accompanied by the weather dome that is Lilleshall and provided some turbulent conditions at times. Awesome work by everyone.

Home and back to work, now tidying everything up ready for heading off to Dunster at the weekend. Following my trip to a&e 2 weeks ago I have made some responsible decisions about what I should be shooting and of the possible days I have entered 5. My set up is not right and there will not be time to make the corrections needed so I am expecting absolutely nothing, not even decent scores! But I will be spending time with great friends and that is what I am going for – that and the ice cream 😜

So, prepare for next week being reduced communication 🙃

Enjoy whatever the next couple of weeks hold ❤️🏹

week 105 – the start of year 3 😎

Helen Sharpe weekly update, Quick catch up

Thank you for the messages last week for the 2nd birthday of Integr8archery CIC, I never take support for granted, and I loved all of the photos of cake! 🍰

It was a busy week and certainly hit hard by the issues that saw my peak flow tank to emergency levels, forever grateful to the NHS and the care they give. Thank you to those who allowed me to make adjustments to meetings and calls and to those who have had to listen to me squeak all week! For those who have known me a long time my Dysphonia is nothing new and the use of steroids and nebulisers always trigger issues but some will recall the 2 periods of speech therapy I have had to have in the past, the good news is that with the daily exercises and reduction in steroids things are slowly returning to normal.

Particularly great news as I will be helping Northamptonshire Sport deliver the amazing event that always sees the culmination of the school games, schools enter their teams for each sport that they have taken part in over the previous months. 10 schools have entered a team for their first ever archery competition – an indoor short metric. Exciting stuff and I cannot wait to share the competition element of our sport. Hopefully I will get a new photo of me and Blaze too, last one was taken 2 years ago! Still would love to see Blaze and Fletch on the range together – maybe one day!

One of the hardest things is having to draw a line under projects that aren’t working for whatever reason, this week has seen a couple of those decisions and it’s why I carry out regular reviews and keep stats on everything, allows an impartial decision to be made. I never say never, and where possible we have returned to projects and restarted after some down time, so who knows what the future holds?

New dates put in the calendar to see the rest of 2024 committed to some existing collaborations and also 3 new community groups in the calendar for multiple sessions, exciting – let’s hope we get fair weather for the new groups to sustain their enthusiasm until they get into the routine.

JNOC this weekend, and as I have taken the summer off from AGB competition volunteering it will allow me to be a parent and also to support a number of young people who always come and find me on the range. Time to catch up with friends too and I will definitely be carrying lots of hugs with me 🤗

Much of my preparations have been done for going off to Dunster week, so looking forward to this but expecting rubbish shooting as I just seem unable to get a consistent draw following all of the changes. Dunster offers the ability to have 8 days of shooting with a variety of things on offer, last year I took part in everything except clout. This year I have decided on 5 days and the 2 final days I have opted to make those the national rounds rather than the longer days that I love. Health and balance is important, if I want to go I have to try and be sensible!

With some understanding from colleagues I have managed to get time from work to allow me to attend two of this seasons flight competitions – I love flight it is my favourite of all shooting.

Have a good week and I look forward to seeing you all soon ❤️🏹

week 103 – busy, amazing, inspired

Helen Sharpe weekly update

Some times you just need to chill, reset and think, back to when I first started volunteering at 16 years old, to 1996 and the promises I made to myself if I survived all of that, to when I first held my first niece, the first time I held my children. I have children, nieces, nephews and godchildren, all of whom I have made promises.

I have made mistakes, I am after all human, there are stories around them, to judge me is your right but without context I would question your opinion. At times my motivation has faltered, I get exhausted by the world, but I do believe we each have the power to bring about change, no matter how small, and together we can be unstoppable.

I choose who I work with and who I invite to each event, on each project carefully, most definitely one of the great advantages of having created Integr8archery CIC. On my tired days, it would be easy to stay in the house and hide, I have after all been known to do that for many months, so I pull on my shoes and I visit a group on those days, because seeing the impact of what I am trying to do always, always motivates me to stand up and do more.

Review meeting held this week, some decisions made to change, adjust some things and for a couple of groups the consideration that we may have to end them, the work cannot all be mine, sustainability is the focus, support set up, mentor and hand it all over, if that’s not happening I do have to consider why and what I need to do.

Overall the reviews have shown amazing things, and there have been meetings about new groups and events, the coming months are going to be bust and hopefully full of fun.

Inclusion and accessibility sum up the majority of what I am aiming for, allowing individuals to try new activities with dignity and adapting the sport not the person is what’s important to me, I, along with those who work with me strive for these things.

Swinging in the park, chatting with young people, watching amazing students in their school performance show how their differences do not hold them back, and that they can be themselves freely, inspires me to step towards the 3rd year of integr8archery with passion and inspiration.

Spending time with my county team mates, chatting with people who know me in sport, out of sport, an amazing message from someone I mentored for 3 years in my workplace about what I gave them and how that impacts how they live life now – wow! I can be my best version of me and step forward into 24/25.

Busy few weeks at work, transitions for young people in whom I can see how amazing they are, worth being shattered to support them when life hits bumps in the road.

Got to get some work done on my bow this coming week ready for Dunster!

Catch you on the range my friends ❤️🏹