SparkDad

Oh my goodness! Today was absolutely crazy. As most of you may know I am the Committee Chair for a local Cub Scout Pack. Our Pack has grown quite a bit this year. We have added somewhere between 25-30 Scouts since May. There is a huge difference between 60 and 30 kids.

 

We had our first official Pack meeting tonight and I would guess that we had about 35 kids and their families there. It makes for quite a bit of chaos. It is very hard to get people and Scouts quiet. But the meeting was a success!

 

Pork Chop, now in 1st grade, received his Bobcat badge which is the first rank in Cub Scouts. He got his face painted in yellow, red, white and blue paint and seemed to have a great time.

 

We sent these kids through the Bobcat Trails, which I dreamed up with Skeeter’s help. The kids had to go to 4 “value” stations such as trustworthy, clean, kind and brave. They did small things such as walk through a dark area with trees or help another Scout up that fell down. The young men seemed to have a great time and took it seriously. I hope that he remembers the ceremony and the things he learned.

 

On other news Chevy Truck month is about to start. I am very excited that I will be participating in the advertising campaign with Chevy by driving a truck for the month. I will be going on “missions” and talking about the truck a lot that month. Hopefully there will be some interesting things to talk about. 

 

The arrival of truck month is just in time. Cool weather is hitting and we have our first Cub Scout camp out this weekend. So I will get to use the truck to load up camping gear!

 

- Spark Dad

For those of us who were in Cub Scouts in our youth the Pinewood Derby brings to fond  memories of fun and speed. If you are not familiar with the derby, I will explain. Every year Cub Scout Packs around the country pass out pine wood kits. The kit consists of 1 wood block, 4 plastic wheels and 4 nail axels. The Cub Scout and his parent must then transform said block into a car that weighs five ounces or less. All of the scouts in the Pack will then race their cars down a 36 – 42 foot race track on the day of the derby.

 

The hard part is making the car. Making the car fast, stylish and fun! Skeeter has been a scout for three years now. The first year we made a spectacular car. We worked on it for a month. It was very shapely and looked good. It did not win the race, but Skeeter and I were both proud.

 

Then year two we procrastinated. I made a kit car and it showed. We won nothing!

 

This year we spent a week working on the car and it was a nice blend. It did not win the race but did come in 9th overall. So it was a good car.

 

This year we also made a car for Pork Chop. It looked a lot like a Chevrolet Camaro. Mama  designed it from a model of a Trans Am that is on our book shelf. The car was 10th over all in speed but won 5th place in the finals because it was the fastest of the siblings.

 

Skeeter was mad. Pork Chop was happy.

 

All in all our Pinewood Derby was a success, kids had fun and Skeeter and Porkchop had fun!

 

The derby is a great experience of competition and sportsmanship and is a wonderful tradition.

 

For more information about the pinewood derby see the following links below:

 

Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets: Design and Build the Ultimate Car

 

How to Book: Formula for Building & Racing PineCars

 

Maximum Velocity

 

Wikipedia Page on the Pinewood Derby

 

- Spark Dad