Tomorrow is Derby Day

[LaraK]

Powderpuff Derby that is!

Our car got finished tonight. My seven year old designed it and (once again) designed an insanely complex car. This year it's a canoe with two Girl Scouts paddling the canoe. The canoe is silver and it's riding on the blue water.

She's hopeful that she'll get another design medal because goodness knows she'll never win for speed!

Do you do pinewood or powderpuff derbies?

 

[cybrkitn]

Pinewood. DS7 just had his last weekend which was pretty late. It was scheduled for February, but had to get rescheduled due to snow. We have the Blue and Gold this Sunday.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

Sounds like a great design- good luck to her!

We can't seem to get away from Pinewood and my son crossed over 3 years ago.

DH just refurbished the track and it's back in our garage waiting for Powderpuff next week! DD and I need to get cracking on our cars this weekend.

Have to say- when done right (eg not dads-design-make-paint-the-cars-and-you-know-a-kid's-hand-never-touched-it), I love PWD. I hated I couldn't do it because I was a girl. A friend and I who had brothers in scouts together growing up are both girl scout leaders. We started up Powderpuff 3 years ago. Everyone loves it!

 

[RF536]

We had our Pinewood Derby yesterday, and had a great time. We have a new track, that the cub scouts all worked very hard last summer to raise the funds for. It was fun to see the boys reaction to the new track, it is all aluminum versus the 40+ year old wooden track that we had been using. We were lucky this year, only had 1 or 2 cars that you could tell the boys had nothing to do with.

 

[Duchie]

Our pinewood derby is next weekend. DS (10, and a Junior Webelos) is just now starting on his car. He had a very hard time deciding on a design for his car, but he's finally found one that he likes. He and DH will be working on it today. Surprisingly, DS really does most of the work, but DH does help him with any power tools and with attaching the wheels (which is the hardest part, or so I hear).

DD really wants to do a car and race it. I asked the Cubmaster why we don't have a parents/siblings division as a fundraiser. He said that any time it's been suggested there has been zero interest. Too bad, I think it could be fun!

 

[Duchie]

We had our Pinewood Derby yesterday, and had a great time. We have a new track, that the cub scouts all worked very hard last summer to raise the funds for. It was fun to see the boys reaction to the new track, it is all aluminum versus the 40+ year old wooden track that we had been using. We were lucky this year, only had 1 or 2 cars that you could tell the boys had nothing to do with.

We've got a really great pack and normally don't have any issues. However, a couple of years ago we had this one family who bought their cars off of eBay. They had 2 sons in the pack and they took first and second place overall, and first in their respective packs. They were caught and stripped of their awards, but not until after the race.

 

[RF536]

DS9's car this year was a shark, he did shape the main car with DH's help because of the power tools, DH cut out the fin that was placed on top of the car. DS did all of the sanding and painting, and helped DH get the wheels and axels ready. DS is very particular about his cars and how they look, so he is always involved. I hate it when parents do all of the work, it really ruins it for the boys, DS enjoys designing and making his car as much as racing it. Is his car perfect, no but he is always proud of it because he did it. This year his car took 3rd place in his den, but one best in show for his den. We always tell our judges to pick the best designed car, that looks like the boy did the majority of the work on it.

We have always done an outlaw class for anyone that wants to participate. We charge $5 for current cub scout families and siblings and for boys scouts. We charge $25 for businesses and all others and we supply the kits. This year we had 6 businesses participate (which is pretty good as we live in a small town), we actually went door to door at the businesses asking if they would like to participate. We had 5 sibilings also particiate.