Atop a four-story building last month in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Jon Brickey, owner of Bend-based Competitive Edge Archery Center, taught 18 Mongolian Archery Association representatives the curriculum for a youth-based archery program.

“There’s a lack of exposure to archery in a country that has such a rich historical connection to archery,” he said, noting Genghis Khan ruled the Mongol Empire with a bow centuries ago.

Instead of just sending bows and arrows to Mongolia, Brickey decided to introduce its citizens to the National Archery in the Schools Program, a Wisconsin-based effort to get archery taught in physical education classes. Millions of children in grades four through 12 have participated. And Mongolia, located between Russia and China, is the seventh country to add the program, he said.

“It’s a child-development program, and it uses archery as a tool,” Brickey said. “But everything about the way it’s taught, the way it’s coached … is all positive.”

A certified archery specialist, Brickey taught the Mongolian instructors and trainers, who will, in turn, teach students. The program helps kids learn concentration, relaxation, focus and commitment, Brickey said.

Oyu Tolgoi, a mining company in Mongolia, is behind the effort and funded Brickey’s trip, and the equipment: 70 bows and 700 arrows ordered through Brickey’s shop, on Southeast Reed Market Road.

“This is a pilot program in one of their southern provinces,” Brickey explained.

If the program is successful regionally, he said, it has the potential to go national.

The secondary benefit to Mongolia is the exposure to the sport, he said.

“You can’t look at somebody and say you’re going to be a good archer,” he said. “There’s no physical body type. There’s no height requirement or strength requirement. … The only way to find archers is to expose them and have them shoot.”

Brickey said a lack of training facilities and access to archery equipment in Mongolia makes it difficult for the sport to grow.

“If you don’t have easy access to an activity, you can’t do it,” he said.

Through the National Archery in the Schools Program, he said, a bow will be put in every child’s hand in that province at least once during their school years.

Brickey also hopes to make equipment more accessible. Currently he’s in discussion with members of the Mongolian Archery Association about opening a Competitive Edge Archery branch in Mongolia.

His plan is to set up a shop similar to the Bend store, which opened in May, with both a retail section and an indoor archery range.

He would hire employees in Mongolia to work and manage the store and travel there a few times a year.

“Here’s a country that is screaming for product,” he said. “There’s about 200 bows in their country. I have that in my shop.”