Over the past six years, Pixologie has been a sponsor for the Wisconsin Senior Olympics. We have loved helping preserve the photos and videos of the athletes from the last three decades. On average, over 1,000 athletes compete each year in over 20 different sporting events each August and September. In the WSO Photo Archive, we have preserved thousands of sporting memories.
This year, the competitions became personal when Pixologie co-founder, Mollie Bartelt’s husband Paul was able to compete in the games for the first time. A long-time archer, Paul had to begin training again for competition. And, their kids, Hannah and Alex picked up bows as well to start shooting with him in the family’s backyard. (Mollie, unfortunately, had a shoulder injury and couldn’t compete.)
Our client story for this month centers around Archery and some of the photos Mollie took which captured the spirit of the day. Photos that tell the story of a fantastic day of competition, camaraderie and fun, and that maybe will inspire others start their own archery tradition.
A Little Bit About WSO Archery & the 2019 WSO Archery Event
Athletes meet at Beloit Field Archers the Saturday after Labor Day each year for a 900 Round tournament with 30 arrows shot at 60, 50 and 40 yards. Between thirty and fifty men and women compete in the event using different types of bows and releases.
Karl Nelson runs the WSO tournament each year and welcomes other archers to compete who may not be old enough for the WSO. Sometimes, teenagers join the competition. It’s great to see the intergenerational connections that happen.
Mollie and Paul’s son, Alex joined and helped Dick Lindemann, an 89 year old athlete just recently back in the game. Alex and Dick shot at closer targets while the rest of the competition went on.
After each round of six shots, Alex would pluck Dick’s arrows out of his target, add up the points and bring them back to Dick. They encouraged each other and had lots of laughs. Alex would tell Dick his score and Dick would reply with a comment like “Well, gotta do better the next time,” and “That’s pretty good!”
More Than Just Archery
When Mollie’s family looks back at these photos from the day, the stories will include:
- The fun and joy that all the competitors had during the day
- Paul’s experience competing in the Wisconsin Senior Olympics Archery event, achieving a gold medal and a score that he hopes to beat in 2020
- Alex getting his best 900 score so far
- Dick being able to compete once again and having Alex assisting with his game
- The importance of practicing to get better at a skill
- The value of being active, enjoying the outdoors and helping others
As Alex grows older, we hope he’ll pass on the values of hard work, practice, friendship and the love of outdoors to his family. If there were no photos taken or saved from the day, it would be hard for this to happen. What does your photo collection say about your family values and traditions? We’d love to help you bring it all together. Email us at contact@pixologieinc.com or call 414-731-1881.
Want to see what else we’ve done with the Wisconsin Senior Olympics? Click here to read about their 2018 games! See more photos from the 2019 Archery event by clicking here.