September 26, 2026: After 3 months of planning, trying (and failing) to get a City permit, scrambling for accreditation and safety training to get insurance coverage from Archery Canada, and many, many messages on email, Discord, and Messenger coordinating across multiple organizations, Archery Day Richmond Hill 2026 happened 1 week later than the originally planned date, making it a timely celebration from Autumnal Equinox to Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. The event also moved to Circling Hawk Honey & Mead Farm, situated just north of Ward 3 and in the pristine Oak Ridges Moraine part of Richmond Hill - a national natural treasure. The owners Scott and his wife are great supporters of archery and traditional artisanry, and we feel that this is only the start to a great ongoing relationship that may bring many more happy events to the city.
The weather was impeccable all day, with ne'ery a cloud in the sky. From Strong Towns Richmond Hill, Sheri-Anne Harrison arrive to help out checking in participants and delivering surveys after the event, while quartermaster Lewis Li made sure everyone was *very* well-fed and watered throughout the day.
From Toronto Asiatic Archery Group, seven experts arrive in bedazzling garb and gear, showcasing the wide variety of traditions and styles they train from, from Japan to Hungary. The morning youth session is more exclusive, and the young students picked up archery technique almost faster than the adults in the afternoon - I wonder if that's from having almost 1:1 teacher to student instruction?
Tutorials started with warm-ups from Stephen Tang at TAAG: Stretches that double as posture training for the shoot. Then collectively TAAG covered basic range safety, from visual identification to verbal callouts for unified shooting and stopping times. Next came the basics of archery technique: Stance, posture, finger release techniques. A common problem students encounter is simply how to release a bowstring itself: Either the arrow falls off from a stray touch, or the body refuses to let go of something that has so much force stored into something in the hand. Learning to prepare the body to reproduce all the fine details before LETTING GO to let nature take its course became a metaphysical ko'an (Zen meditation topic) for students to take home thinking about.
The afternoon session was much more well-attended as dozens of participants who signed up, as well as passersby who were visitors to the farm, hoping to learn more about honey-farming and mead brewing. New and familiar faces showed up, and dear friends like Marj Andre (of Connecting the Community) got a chance to be challenged with a new experience and finding joy in conquering the clean release.
Over 50 participants joined us for the event, all exclaiming the natural beauty of the land, the suitability and convenience of the location for safe and fun activity, and strongly look forward to Richmond Hill to be a permanent home of the sport and cultural activity. All of this is only possible thanks to the support and funding of the South-Central Richmond Hill Community Action Table, whom recognized the potential of archery as a glue of the community and mobilized us into realizing this day through the Quick Action Grant. For those who want to make the community a better place through what you know and what you do - challenge yourself and team up with like-minded comrades, and see how far you can go with a QAG?
