When Sault native Jacob McEachern isn't drawing his bow, he's drawing a crowd . . . in SPACES.
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The archery space is one of dozens in the Sault's new social network, and with McEachern and his wife Lana Perry at the helm, a laser-focused community that aims to inspire others has started to take shape.
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McEachern was born and raised in the Sault, and after being away for a few years for university happily made his way back to be a big part of the community. He is stoked to be an integral part of SPACES, and is among the Day 1 hosts who were tasked with starting spaces from scratch. He draws from his experience as part owner and founder, along with Perry, of Arrows in Motion, a club which offers lessons and classes in archery locally.
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McEachern is excited about the potential of SPACES. “Hyper-local really is the way to go, the bigger social media platforms, you have to scroll through so much to find anything you are interested in,” he said.
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“I’m excited to get to know our local community more, through participating in different spaces, and of course by reaching out in the Archery space.”
“Archery was always appealing to me, but as a kid I was too nervous to pursue it,” recollected McEachern. “I had a toy and messed around with it, doing wildly unsafe things like launching arrows straight up in the middle of a field, and putting a hole in the siding of our house. Some direction and coaching would've been a good idea!”
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After high school, McEachern met his future wife, Perry, who had a whole different relationship with archery.
As McEachern tells it, “Lana’s parents own Perry's Gun & Bow Shop, so she started young and stuck with it. She and her mother journeyed all over the province for archery competitions. They'd carpool with friends and pitch a tent on the tournament grounds.”
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He continued, “When Lana competed in the Ontario Summer Games, she was hooked and committed herself to giving other kids a chance to experience the excitement and camaraderie of joining travel teams. After university, she took a role as the VP of Athlete Development with Archery Ontario, which saw her bring teams all across the country.”
McEachern pretty quickly realized that if he didn’t get involved in archery, he wasn’t going to see much of his wife.
“I started with a basic traditional bow and branched out to shooting all types of bows over the years. I began with the idea of getting good enough to hunt, got hooked, and then added a long-term goal of keeping up with Lana's target shooting skill.”
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He laughed, “Still working on that one! I snagged a provincial medal last year, but she's competed and coached internationally.”
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McEachern and Perry have been trained through the National Coaching Certification Program. They began running Public Archery Nights nearly 20 years ago at Algoma Rod & Gun Club.
“Demand grew for more in-depth coaching, so we started Arrows In Motion. More recently, we started bringing our inflatable Hover Ball range system to all sorts of different events - country fairs, festivals, Bushplane Days, birthday parties, fundraisers and so on.”
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McEachern’s goal for his archery space is to provide information and encouragement to people in the community who are wondering about archery, and don’t know where to go for more information, as well as to offer a space where people who compete and participate in archery can share their expertise and their achievements, in a safe space.
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He said, “There are many archers who shoot on their own property, in their basements, and at their camps who may not realize how active and large the local archery community is! People who shoot at home might not realize there are leagues, clubs, and lots of events. I want to help people feel more connected and see that there’s lots out there.”
So far, McEachern is encouraged by the Archery space.
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“It’s smaller than some others, as it is a bit of a niche, but people have reached out and told me they are enjoying it, we are noticing an uptick in engagement as the time goes on. I love being part of our community and this is another great way to be part of it, and to bring people together.”
McEachern is excited to reach out and connect with others who are excited or wondering about archery. “I would like to encourage anyone who has a particular interest to drop a line and reach out, get a taste of archery at any time! We had a family do that recently, and share about it in SPACES, too.”
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He added, “I really love to spotlight local folks. We had a number of competitors from our area in the provincial championships, and I spotlighted that in SPACES. I had a lot of comments face to face from people who saw that post.”
He finished, “Things like that are really rewarding and I am excited to see what else can happen with SPACES!”
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