Our derby was on the 16th. We have a new committee and we really tried to make this a great event! In the years past it had always been for bragging rights only. This was the first year that the boys actually won awards, certificates, ribbons and the overall winner received a trophy. We assigned some parents as the race judges. We let the boys vote by secret ballot on their favorites in various categories like coolest car, funniest, best paint job, etc. Every boy left with something!
My son's car
These are the boys voting for their favs
My son was worried because he had a few school projects and did not have as much time as he would have liked to work on his car so he was absolutely shocked when he won.... 1st PLACE in one of the races and was voted by his fellow scouts, COOLEST CAR! YAY FOR HIM!!!
I really like the idea of letting the boys vote for their favorite. Our judges vote of the different catergories as it stands now. But I might steal your idea & suggeswt we add a scout favorite catergory for next year! All the cars look great, including your sons! Tell him he did a great job!
We have not had our pinewood derby yet, but hopefully soon. We have heard everyone talking about how competative it is, the sad part of what I have been hearing is that the boys in many cases have very litlte to do with the building of the cars. It seems more of a compitition of Dads abilities. My sons car when we get to planning our derby may not be the best, but he will have done most of the work. For that alone he can be proud.
Absolutely, I just posted about this an another forum. My son keeps the design simple so that he may do most of the cutting himself. There were kids at this derby, despite committee and CM warnings that did not even touch their own cars. It's a shame. We even had a scout that told me he was using his girl scout sister's car but his mom told him to lie and say it was his!!! I did not let the CM know until after the derby, I did not want him getting in trouble with his mom. It's not his fault that she's teaching him to be dishonest.
I think it took a lot for that young man to tell you. Way to go for him. As a Webelos part of the Scout Law says honesty. And that tells me he abided by it. Parent on the other hand I'd say different.
All of the cars look great. Tell the boys in your pack how awesome the derby looked.
Quoting coleysmama:
Absolutely, I just posted about this an another forum. My son keeps the design simple so that he may do most of the cutting himself. There were kids at this derby, despite committee and CM warnings that did not even touch their own cars. It's a shame. We even had a scout that told me he was using his girl scout sister's car but his mom told him to lie and say it was his!!! I did not let the CM know until after the derby, I did not want him getting in trouble with his mom. It's not his fault that she's teaching him to be dishonest.
Bryan (6/10/98) 
Johnathan (3/1/00) 
Kaitlyn (6/17/06)
Me between work 
Scouts and 
family
Our derby is planned for Friday - and check in was SUPPOSED to be Tuesday. But we've had school cancelled due to snow yesterday and today. Ick! One of the dads is having check in at his house since we can't do this at school tonight. This is going to be very interesting, since we have about 75 scouts! The committee chair set up a schedule so everyone doesn't show up at once.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Quoting CREKELLY:
Our derby is on Saturday I will post pics then. I love the idea of the boys picking the coolest car and other awards what a good idea.
Yep, they really loved having a say in the awards. When we announced that they would be voting they were all cheering! There were some kids who voted for themselves (nothing wrong with that if they really felt they deserved that particular award) but for the most part they really thought about their decisions and even had a few debates going on..LOL. It was really cute to watch.
I'm sooo sad that I will no longer be on the committee since my son will be bridging in a couple of weeks(yay!). We really tried to make this a great year for the boys and we became like a family...great tearing up again..LOL.
Good luck at your derby!!
Pinewood Derby craft
- coleysmama
on Jan. 26, 2009 at 10:59 AM