Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Pinewood Derby



Last night was Pinewood Derby night for our Cub Scouts. If I've calculated right, it's our eighth one between the two boys, and Randy's been the Cubmaster for six of them. This was by far the easiest and fastest. This year our county's fire department, in an effort to reach out to the community more, invited all Cub Scout packs in our district to come to the fire station for their derbies. The fire department invested in state-of-the-art aluminum track, software and all the bells-and-whistles (like a recorded screeching car sound) that our pack could never have dreamed of buying. It was fantastic. With 35 cars racing, the race took about 45 minutes instead of the usual 2 hours or more. The winners were quickly calculated, and the top three racers got to race against the Fire Chief!

It was an awesome night. I can remember years ago when we had to actually time the cars with hand-timers and write out the winners on paper, calculate winners' brackets, and have do-overs. Invariably, a few parents and kids were unhappy because something didn't seem to be calculated right or the track was lopsided or a race was so close that it was hard to tell who really won. It was very stressful, especially for the Cubmaster. Through the years, many of those variables were eliminated with a better track and better technology, but the fire station's set-up was absolutely fantastic.

And in case you were wondering, not that winning matters (whatever), Duncan's car took 10th place, and he was very happy for his friend Caleb who came in 2nd.

That was a very wordy Wordless Wednesday. For less wordful ones, check out Wordless Wednesday and Five Minutes for Mom.

7 comments:

  1. my son made one of these in school this week, well it wasn't just pinewood, they put like a mini rocket or something in it to shoot it down the road. Happy ww! looks like a lot of fun

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  2. Our AWANA club does a "Grand Prix" which is very similar in nature. I was going to comment on what a cool track you all have! ;-) Ours is computerized but it's wooden and sits on the floor. Our biggest obstacle is keeping the kids away from it. LOL

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  3. ah... fun and stress... dont' they always come together! found you on the homeschool blog hop... now following.
    Jenn~ Seizingmyday.com

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  4. we did several pinewood derbys but none with such a fantastic track! kudos to your fire department for such a fun service to the community. I'm married to an Eagle - he's terribly impressed!!

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  5. I've never been to a derby. It looks like a lot of fun thought.

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  6. I remember my son participating in the pinewood derby about 13 years ago. It was alot of fun.
    Blessings
    Diane

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  7. I follow your blog from follow friday!! I would love if you come follow me :)
    http://mylittlestgravesies.blogspot.com

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