More than a month after 14 bows worth $2,000 went missing from a shipping container on the playground of a Pacoima middle school, the student archers are slowly getting back into the groove, thanks to donors who helped pay for replacement equipment.
The students at iLEAD Pacoima started practices and tryouts again, which has made them very happy.
"For some this is the only therapy and the only release they get in an otherwise stressful life," said Jacob Drori, the archery coach who founded the program at the school last year. "It's more than just equipment for them."
Mid October, students were shocked when they discovered their bows missing. Someone opened the shipping container and had taken the bows, said Principal Dave Trejo. The theft could have happened in the three-week period when the archery program went dark after Sept. 23, he said.
He said the campus is shared with another program, but so far no one has come forward with information about the missing bows.
Strangers, friends and others have donated $1,690 as of Tuesday afternoon on a gofundme account.
When the bows disappeared, the students were so crushed, "you'd thought someone had shot a puppy," their coach said. The program was put on hold because "it's hard to shoot an arrow without a bow," Drori said.
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No police report was filed, but school officials notified Easton Archery, which had donated the original equipment. The company told the school that this has happened before at another school and they donated some equipment.
The program is one of only four archery teams in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Up to 40 students participate in the club, Drori said.
The club traveled last year to a competition at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. One student, who had never picked up a bow until six weeks before the competition, placed among the top scorers in the country, Drori said.
