Ready, set, roll!
Cub Scouts from across the borough raced their homemade cars at the Pinewood Derby at the Kings Plaza Shopping Center on March 7. Scout sprouts aged 7- to 11-years-old carved their cars from a block of wood, decorated the vehicles, and then watched their creations roll down the colorful course powered only by gravity and hope.
The cars couldn’t weigh more than five ounces, but an organizer of the event said the children were otherwise free to design them however they wished — and he said the youngsters’ themes featured food, movie characters, and video games.
“The creativity of some of the cars is amazing,” said Milton Davis, the Cub Scout District Activities Chairman. “We had a car that looked like a French fry, we saw minions, we saw Minecraft.”
Sixteen youngsters won trophies — the top three winners in each cub den, plus the winner of the Best Derby Car Design award. The winning car design was a yellow racecar that featured this positive slogan — “We Help Good People.”
The downhill course had four lanes and Davis said each car rolled down each lane so the cubs couldn’t say one lane was faster than another. The fastest car clocked in at 2.3534 seconds and the average time was about 2.7 seconds.
Davis said his favorite part of the event was seeing the custom creations and watching the kids’ faces when they realized they won.
“The most exciting part is just seeing the cars,” he said. “You see the kid’s face when they win and their car comes down, and it is good.”
