Pinewood Derby

April 24, 2008 When I was called to be cubmaster, the single thing I dreaded most about the calling was the Pinewood Derby. As with most things in life, it wasn't as horrible as I feared, but it was a lot of work, I'm glad it's over, and I will definitely do things differently another time. The top picture shows Marcus's car in lane 1, and Sheridan's in lane 2 just before one of their races began. The pictures of the boys didn't turn out too well, and Sheridan was dealing with feeling quite disappointed in how his car performed (he had a bad wheel). The bottom picture shows the plaques I made for each of the boys (with considerable help from both Dad and Guy and a neighbor with a nice router. Also, I had Marenda's neighbor do the vinyl lettering for me and she gave me a deal). These were designed to hang on the wall and hold the cars on the little shelf. I used my label maker to print the "awards" each car won, and put the label on the front of the shelf (Marcus won "Best Racing Stripes" and Sheridan won "Best Paint Job"). This was my attempt to bring the focus back where I think it should be--on the cars the kids built, not on how fast they went.

Alternatives I'm Considering for the Next Pinewood Derby I'm In Charge Of:

1. If Den leaders are willing, build the cars completely at Den meetings and not allow the parents to touch them at all. (This, however, defeats one purpose of the derby which is to get the boys to work WITH their parents in building the car. It would prevent certain Dads from becoming TOO involved.)

2. Let the kids build them at home, but have a "BOYS ONLY" of at least "DADS NOT INVITED" derby.

3. (My favorite option right now) I got this idea from the SuperScoutGuy who came and set up the track and ran the race and gave me a computer print-out of the results (for the well-worth-it fee of $50). He once ran a derby that was composed of 4-5 different "events" set up around the room. Each boy was given a score card and allowed to go to whatever events they wanted. One was the derby track and they'd just race whoever happened to be around (they'd get points for how they finished to add to their card). The other events included "straight as an arrow" to see how straight the cars could drive, and "bullseye" where the boys would try and drive their cars to stop on a certain point. Again, points would be awarded for how well they did on each. I'm not sure what he did with the points in the end, but there was no overall race winner, and he said the boys had a great time. Liz added that it would be fun to also allow the boys to vote on some design awards as part of it.

Overall, the derby went well and the plaques were a really big hit, but I have yet to actually ENJOY one of these events.