PHOTO PROVIDED Dennis Greenaway, of Avis, poses for a photo with one of his crossbows.

AVIS — Dennis C. Greenaway, of Avis, is a local competitive crossbow shooter and a Williamsport native. He has a successful career in international shooting competitions, as well as on social media.

He’s surpassed 2,200 days of his crossbow journey recently, and he is still going strong.

“How I got into the international competition was during March 17, 2020, during the lockdown,” he commented. “I started posting my crossbows online. The Indian Crossbow Association saw me shooting, and I got a hold of USA crossbow. They invited me to India. I shot in the medieval division, and was the first ever American to do so.”

He is a part of the Society for Creative Anachronisms, and he made it clear that he is not a historical re-enactor or a historian. Instead, he enjoys all things medieval, generalizing them all together to create his hobby — collecting medieval garments and weapons and sparring other enthusiasts with them.

His weapons are not just good for fighting and shooting, either. Greenaway’s crossbows have been used in movies such as Glass Onion and Pink Panther, something he could not believe at first. For Glass Onion, he got a call one afternoon from a props director.

“I’m driving home from Williamsport one day,” he started, “and I get a call. He says he’s a props man in Hollywood, and the first thing I think is ‘yeah, sure.'”

Despite being unable to believe it, he lent his crossbow and received $500 for it in the process, as well as an opportunity to see his weapon held by the Glass Knight in the film.

Throughout all of his successes, one question stayed on Greenaway’s mind, and it was a question that continued to come up: how do you make somebody happy?

For Greenaway, it is through genuine, human connections. He focuses on connecting with people all over the world. He is learning sign language to communicate with deaf people and he picked a Christmas card in braille to send to a blind girl he’s become acquainted with.

It is clear that communication is important to him.

He prioritizes communicating with all ages to get varying perspectives on the world.

“I get to talk to ages 7 to 70. We are caught in our own time frame and we don’t get to talk outside it a lot,” Greenaway said.

One specific connection was with a woman named Becky, his late friend and fellow crossbow enthusiast who had brilliant craftsmanship when creating crossbows.

“(These crossbows) were from a woman in Michigan, unfortunately now the late Rebecca Huntington,” Greenaway said. “I met Becky in the ’90s. She’s made about 20 crossbows. This woman was an absolute genius when it came to making things.”

This connection has stuck with Greenaway through his entire crossbow career. The pair would talk about crossbows for hours — she was an inspiration to him and his career, and his favorite crossbow comes from her.

Among his communications is his social media pages, where he teaches crossbow shooting to an audience of 100,000. In doing so, he reaches people all around the globe, including people he has met in crossbow competitions, including in places like India and Australia.

He got crossbow parts from all around the world thanks to social media, including Brazil and Scotland, the latter of which he has visited himself. Soon he will visit Estonia, where his next competition is, something he is both nervous about and looking forward to.

“Last year if I went in my age group, I would’ve won two gold medals. I’m not sure about this year, though,” Greenaway said. “I’ve shot with the Estonians, and they’re really good.”