Friday, April 16, 2021

Arkansas S3DA Archer Creates App to Monitor Diabetes

Williamsburg, KY – Andrew Boots is a 7th grade student that attends Valley View Jr. High in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Andrew’s favorite subject is Science, and he spends most of his extracurricular time participating in Esports, golf, or with his local archery club Nock on Nea. Andrew’s mom, Michelle has Type 1 Diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin. Insulin is a hormone needed to allow sugar (glucose) to enter cells to produce energy.

Andrew saw a need to help diabetics have a more consistent and affordable way to regularly check their blood sugars. He developed an app that stores blood sugars allowing people to share their blood sugar numbers with their health care team and adjust their insulin accordingly. While there are other devices on the market for $900 or more a year, this system would be a one-time fee of around $40, making it affordable for many. Andrew is still working for perfection on the app but has high hopes to make this available to everyone in the near future.

We asked Andrew’s mom how many archery competitions he had competed in and what he liked about archery. Michelle stated, “I'm not sure how many S3DA events Andrew has participated in. He has absolutely loved the experience though. He has been so encouraged at how supportive, helpful, and inclusive the entire team has been to him. He is especially appreciative of his coach, Tracy Shaw. It has been rewarding to see all the hard work Andrew has put into this project and his heart behind it. Getting affordable resources to people is the goal. We are immensely proud of him!”

Arkansas S3DA State Coordinator, Tracy Shaw stated, “Andrew came into the club very reserved and a little shy. We have this thing at our club where all the kids give each other an animal name and the kids chose “Buck” for Andrew. The smile on his face was priceless. Andrew completed the indoor season with Nock on Nea and is now transitioning to compete in his first 3-D shoot. We are honored to have him on our team, and he is a wonderful young man.”

About Scholastic 3-D Archery

Scholastic 3-D Archery (S3DA) is a unique, family-oriented youth archery program which has grown exponentially across the United States as a next-step initiative to follow introductory archery programs. The mission of the Scholastic

3-D Archery program is to foster, educate and guide youth in the areas of 3-D, indoor target, and outdoor target archery as well as safe, ethical bowhunting practices. The goal of the S3DA program is to provide archery and bowhunting opportunities to youth in after-school settings, as well as with archery-affiliated clubs and businesses in the community. S3DA students participate in 3-D and target archery using compound and traditional archery equipment. Students can participate at local, regional, state, and national archery events and earn college scholarships from colleges and universities across the United States. S3DA addresses the need for a program to bridge beginning target archery experience and more advanced activities such as 3-D shooting and bowhunting. The program currently operates across the United States with hundreds of certified coaches serving thousands of young archers, grades 3–12.

Contact the Scholastic 3-D Archery National Office at:

www.s3da.org or 225 North 3rd Street, Williamsburg, KY 40769, Ph: 606.524.3685

Media contact Kayla Bolton at kayla@s3da.org, Ph: 423.494.2204