PELHAM – With just three classes under its belt, Oak Mountain State Park’s Fundamentals of Archery for Beginners class is off to a great start.

OMSP event coordinator Anna Jones said every class has been full. On Saturday, Sept. 22, Girl Scout Troop 208 from Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham attended the class in an effort to help the girls earn their archery badge.

Parent volunteer Tiffany Ford said the leaders of the troop are always looking for fun activities for the girls to try.

“We do our best to expose them to new things,” she said. We’re working on helping them earn as many badges as they’d like. Some of the girls have already been exposed to archery, but we do have some new girls who are doing it for the first time.”

Seven girls from the troop attended the class. During the class, instructor Faith Bailey taught the girls about the parts of a bow, proper stance, shooting and aiming.

“It’s very introductory,” Jones said. “They don’t need any prior experience to be able to do this.”

The class is for children ages 6-12 years old. Each class can accommodate up to 10 kids.

“We like to keep the class sizes small because there’s only one instructor and we want the kids to get as much individual help as possible,” Jones said.

Jones said archery is an activity that park users have been interested in for a while.

“We’re so excited to be offering this,” she said. “We listen to our guests and when they say they want something, we do our best to make it happen. There’s been a lot of interest and a desire for this for a while.”

Participants should to wear closed toe shoes and have their hair up or pulled back away from the face. Be sure to bring water and bug spray. Classes meet at the Archery Range inside the park.

The classes cost $5 per child and are added to OMSP’s Facebook page under the events tab. All archery equipment is provided. Guests can also call OMSP at 620-2536.