ATA Announces Impact Award Recipients at the 2026 ATA Industry Celebration Event

NEW ULM, MN — The Archery Commerce Affiliation is happy to announce Marilyn Bentzand Barb Terry because the 2026 ATA Impression Award recipients. Recipients of this prestigious award had been introduced on Jan. 7 through the 2026 ATA Business Celebration occasion, introduced by Mossy Oak, for utilizing their voice and/or platform to encourage others to take pleasure in and take part in archery and bowhunting. 

“Among the many worthy accomplishments of many people and organizations, we’re proud to acknowledge this 12 months’s Impression Award recipients for his or her lengthy and significant contributions to the archery and bowhunting business,” Jeff Poole, ATA president and CEO, stated. 

ATA’s Impression Award Recipients:  

Marilyn Bentz | Nationwide Bowhunter Training Basis 

A former two-term board member of the Archery Commerce Associations Board of Administrators, Bentz at present serves as a Board of Director on the Nationwide Bowhunter Training Basis since 1996 and govt director of the Nationwide Bowhunter Training Basis since 2003, main the worldwide nonprofit’s mission to advertise protected and accountable bowhunting via standardized training. A revered chief within the archery business, she beforehand served on the NBEF Board of Administrators and has held board positions with the Archery Commerce Affiliation, the Archery Corridor of Fame, and the Tree Stand Security Consciousness Basis.  

Bentz is the recipient of quite a few business honors, together with the Fred Bear Achievement Award and IHEA’s Gladney Davidson Award. She was inducted into the Legends of the Outdoor Corridor of Fame in 2005. Her profession started below the mentorship of archery innovator Chuck Saunders and advanced via management roles at a number of main archery and looking manufacturers. 

Bentz’s enterprise philosophy is profound in its simplicity. She identifies her philosophy because the “Assume Manufacturing facility” mentality; a talent acquired a few years in the past from her early mentor, Chuck Saunders. It’s to offer options to present issues and create area of interest markets which can be economically satisfying to each the producer and the buyer. 

Barb Terry | TenPoint Crossbow Applied sciences 

Terry’s archery profession started with Hunter’s Manufacturing as a professional employees member within the fall of 1996. She then began attending NWTF Jakes and Ladies within the Outdoor occasions educating children as younger as three, in addition to adults, safely shoot crossbows. In 2003, she took a full-time place at TenPoint Crossbow Applied sciences assembling crossbows and performing guarantee repairs. In the present day, she is their commerce present coordinator, a professional employees supervisor, and is accountable for buyer relations, coaching, training, writing proprietor’s manuals, catalog copy, accent directions, and video scripts. Terry has additionally authored articles for varied magazines reminiscent of Horizontal Bowhunter, Girl Hunter and Crossbow Connectionand was a part of the committee that developed the ATA’s Crossbow Technician Program. 

Within the mid-2000’s, Terry began educating particular wants and bodily challenged youth to shoot crossbows throughout deer hunts with Whitetail Heritage of Ohio. Over time, the group expanded its mission to incorporate first-time hunters and adults with disabilities. Terry has been concerned with the group longer than some other member, and the 2025 hunt marked her twentieth consecutive 12 months. In 2023, she was awarded the Conservationist of the Yr Award. 

Amongst her achievements, Terry was additionally the vice chairman of Ohio Hunt for Hope for eight years. The occasion features a two-day deer hunt for particular wants and bodily challenged youth, ages 10-17. To ensure everybody has equal entry to those looking alternatives, Terry brings most, if not all, of the tools wanted for the hunt. 

As a board member for the Nationwide Bowhunter Training Basis, Terry has ready and introduced specialised Worldwide Crossbow Training Program lessons to certify instructors. She’s created programs for 4-H instructors in Ohio, treestand producer members, veterans’ teams, and a crossbow training course to fulfill the Alaska state pointers for his or her hunter training instructors. 

Final 12 months, Terry accepted a place with the newly fashioned nonprofit group Instructing Our Traditions as an unpaid advisor and coach. This group’s goal is to protect and honor cherished looking, fishing and conservation traditions whereas concurrently embracing their pure evolution to stay related and significant in a altering world. 

In regards to the Awards 

The ATA Awards Program was created in 2020 to acknowledge people and corporations that make vital contributions to the way forward for archery. 

For extra details about the ATA’s awards program, please contact Jennifer Mazur, ATA’s senior director of outreach and training, at jennifermazur@archerytrade.org or (507) 233-8139.

Serving our members since 1953, the Archery Commerce Affiliation is the main group for producers, retailers, distributors, gross sales representatives and others working within the archery and bowhunting business. The ATA works to extend the recruitment and retention of latest, present and once-active archers and bowhunters, whereas serving as a driving power in defending, educating and lobbying for the larger good of the business and sport. The ATA preserves and promotes archery and bowhunting’s wealthy heritage to make sure lively client participation, and profitable manufacturing and retailing for generations to come back. The ATA owns and operates the ATA Present, the archery and bowhunting business’s largest and longest-running commerce present worldwide.