Jump to content

Help me brainstorm some auxiliary unofficial Pinewood Derby awards


Recommended Posts

We always created design categories since not everyone has the means or the know how to compete on speed. We gave out a certificate for each rank then a trophy for the winner in each category.  We came out awards for best in show, blackest black, hand decorated, hand painted {my favorite}, scout theme, sports theme, military theme, American theme but if you just google cub scout pinewood derby themes there will be more than you can ever imagine.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

We always have: Fastest Car, Marathon Winner (the slowest car (which has to make it past the finish line to count)), Most Creative, Best Craftsmanship, and Scout's Choice. Every boy who enters a car receives a participation medal as well. 

Of all the awards, the most coveted is easily the Marathon Winner, and we actually have two set of brackets to accommodate the competition for both the fastest and slowest cars. It's become easy to figure out how to make a car fast, but to make it slower than every other car while still making it all the way down the track? THAT can be just as tricky. And the nice thing is, there is no one "winner" of the evening. There are many, but of differing kinds, which I think makes the whole day much less stressful.

Link to post
Share on other sites

We have a marathon winner with similar rules.  It is great for scouts on their 4th or 5th PWD that are bored with the other awards.  Also, it’s great for those that just have slower cars and keeps them interested.  We give the slowest car the “Es-Car-Go” award...

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...

Read this story  regarding Veterans serving a Rockland, Maine Cub Scout Pack  back in the day

There was one thing that used to irritate me no end. Each spring, the boys and their parents would build official Pinewood Derby cars, little wooden things on wheels we would then race on a track we stored at the Congregational Church.

The idea was to produce a few top racers who would go to the annual Council Pinewood Derby races, a process normally achieved by the standard method of eliminating boys whose cars lost in each heat.

This tended to produce increasing numbers of boys and parents who were no longer involved and instead had to hang around the church hall for ages, waiting for the winners to be determined. All that effort and yet so little involvement, is how I saw it.

I asked the Pack committee to agree to new rules. Each boy could race his car as often as he cared to, and would accumulate stickers that we stuck underneath the cars to show how many first, second and third places each car achieved.

When we all had enough and decided to call it a day, we simply counted up the number of stickers showing first place wins on each car, and the three top first-placers were declared our Pack winners. At least it kept all the boys engaged through the entire event, rather than kicking them out altogether.

...

My time with the Rockland Cubs taught me a lot about how people can get things done when they work together thoughtfully, whether they are vets or not, and certainly regardless of their politics. How much things seem to be diminished today, when I think back to my time with of a bunch of Rockland-area parents back in the 90s who simply agreed to do their best for their boys, the community of youngsters who are now the not-so-very-young adults all around us.

We blundered, we bumbled, we still got things done. It sure didn’t hurt that we happened to have a few good vets sprinkled among our numbers.

Source link:  A few good vets

https://knox.villagesoup.com/p/a-few-good-vets/1878046

Edited by RememberSchiff
  • Upvote 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...