ON THE MARK >>> Local Girl Scout Troop Partners with Thornton Parks, Recreation & Community Programs (TPRCP) to build and inclusive Archery Range in Thornton By Mike Coulter, Recreation Coordinator, City of Thornton
In a city of 145,000 residents, during a pandemic shutdown, you would not think four young girls could come up with an idea to build an ADA accessible archery range, navigate through the bureaucracy associated with a city of that size, and then see their idea come to fruition in just six months. You’d be wrong though. Last summer, four young members of Girls Scout Troop #62511, Abigail Boehmler, Eden Lucas-Eraquam, Samantha Gemaehlich, and Aleaha Schauppner decided for their Silver Award Project, they would like to see an archery range built in Thornton that would be free of charge for the public to use and would be accessible to all regardless of their abilities. 26 • Colorado Byline | Spring 2021
They first contacted Thornton City Council member Adam Matkowsky with the idea and said they were willing to solicit lumber donations and build twelve target holders and six bow stands for the project. Councilmember Matkowsky asked Parks, Recreation & Community Programs Director, Seve Ghose to look into this to see if it was possible. Mr. Ghose loved the idea and assembled a team of staff from the department and the project was off and running in August 2020. The first step was deciding how many lanes to construct and what type of target holders and bow stands would be used. The girl scout troop did research both online and by visiting other ranges and came up with the recommendation
to build six lanes with two targets each. Distances would be 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 100 meters. One target would be at 70 meters as that is the official Olympic distance for the longbow competition. Parks staff then selected a site at Spratt Lake (100th and McKay) and began grading a large plot. A priority from the start was to make the range welcoming
