The Northumberland Strait Shooters and Antigonish Archery Association have teamed up to take aim at a deadly disease.

Since 2018, the groups have joined forces to raise funds for the Pictou County Prostate Cancer Support Association with an annual event at the Hector Arena in Pictou. Originally called Shoot for Dad, the event has evolved into Shoot for Cancer, with the clubs including the Women Alike Breast Cancer Survivors Society of Pictou County and surrounding areas as a charity to receive funding. This year, the Cathy’s Place cancer resource rooms at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish were included.

“We had about 115 shooters this year,” said Lori Daling, a member of the executive of the Strait Shooters. “We had a two-round tournament with about 20 or so targets on the floor. We had two lines in the morning and another two in the afternoon, and we had some good long shots, I think the longest one was about 48 yards or so. The youngest person who participated was, I believe, five years old and I think the oldest person we had was in their 70s, so it was a really good mix.

“There’s a whole bunch of different categories in competitive archery, so we had the traditional shooters with their traditional looking bow and arrow look along with the compound shooters with their high-tech, high-speed bells and whistles.”

There was an added personal touch to the event, with people able to donate to have dedication signs alongside targets on the floor for loved ones who have died from cancer as well as those living with the disease.

“There weren’t too many people there who didn’t have that personal connection to the event, either knowing someone or having a family member who either has cancer or who has passed away because of it,” said Daling. “So that was a little something extra we wanted to do to acknowledge that.”

Archers had to bring their own equipment to the shoot, but there were other events available for those who simply wanted to attend as a show of support.

“We are very much a recreational group,” said Daling. “We want people to shoot the targets they are comfortable with. If you’re not comfortable shooting a target that’s at 48 yards and you want to shoot at a target from 24 yards, shoot that, we don’t care. We have some people that come to this as they only event they go to all year, and we have some who are at every archery event in the province every year, so it’s a lot of different skill sets. 

“We had a dartboard set up for anyone who wanted to do that, we had raffle draws for people who just wanted to be there to help support the community and we had some businesses donate products and did some giveaways out on the floor. We had a canteen open, so even if you just wanted to come get a bite to eat and support it that way, you could do that, too, so even though it’s an archery event, there’s lots of space for the community to take part.”

Daling said the event raised more than $23,000, well above what organizers had hoped for.

“Our goal for this year was $15,000, so we definitely surpassed that,” said Daling.

Since its inception, the total amount donated has been more than $35,000.

“We started planning for this in January and we already have some ideas kicking around for next year,” said Daling. “There’s lots of room for growth. We doubled the amount of money we were able to donate from last year, and hopefully we can continue to make more people aware of this and other archery events that we have throughout the year.”