Chatfield, MN - The Pope and Young Club Conservation, Education and Outreach fund has awarded a grant to the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP). The grant helped provide food vouchers to the NASP volunteers throughout the 2016 season.

NASP® was developed to serve these specific educational and conservation purposes. NASP® was co-created by the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources and Department of Education and Mathews Archery in the late summer and fall of 2001. The program was launched in 21 Kentucky middle schools on March 3, 2002. Originally called the "Kentucky Archery in the Schools Program", the effort's goal was to enroll 120 schools and teach target archery skills to 24,000 students each year. Kentucky gave itself three years to achieve this goal.

"The Pope and Young Club has been a supporter of the National Archery in the Schools Program since its inception in 2002," says Roy Grimes, CEO/President of NASP®. "The Club believed in NASP® when a lot of folks didn't think the program had a chance of enrolling any or many schools. Today, with more than 12,000 schools in the program from 47 states, 9 Provinces, and 10 countries, the Club's faith in the potential of NASP® is paying off for more than 2 million students per year."

The Pope and Young Club grant helped provide food vouchers to more than 175 volunteers at the NASP National Tournament. When surveyed by the Walker Group in 2013, 16% of NASP National Tournament of participants planned on buying hunting licenses and 27% of those claimed NASP was the reason. 56% of NASP students say they want to know more about bowhunting. According to the Archery Trade Association, since 2001 when NASP started, the number of archers has increased from 7 million to 19 million.

The Pope and Young Club is a non-profit North American conservation and bowhunting organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of our bowhunting heritage, hunting ethics and wildlife conservation. The Club also maintains the universally recognized repository for the records and

statistics on North American big game animals harvested with a bow and arrow.

Contact the Pope & Young Club office at:
www.pope-young.org or P.O. Box 548, Chatfield, MN 55923, Ph: 507.867.4144

Media contact Rick Mowery at: rick@pope-young.org, Ph: 989.884.3800