Pinewood Derby is over…I can breath again
Spent this past week on the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Been totally swamped. Wow what a lot of work.
First challenge was building a car with Jed. We ended up with a simple yet effective wedge design with the weight formed inside the hollowed out wooden block. Jed ended the evening with a 3rd place ribbon. Over his three years in Cub Scouts, Jed placed 1st, 3rd, and 3rd. I’m so happy for Jed as I know how important this was to him.
After the car for my son, I had to prepare for the other 20 boys! I had to figure out how to race and score 20 different boys. Of course I wanted this computerized. I modified and used a cool spreadsheet application from ScoutDB.org and highly recommend it. It allowed me to track each heat easily and allow for calling out the heats with the boys names.
Managing the whole event was easier this year than last year. I enlisted the help of 5-6 people who were in charge of various parts of the derby (pit, starter, timer, chalk-board scoring, others).
Special thanks to Richard H., Jena H., Rich J., Boyd M., Greg A., Stephanie G., Lindsay P. — the were all awesome! And Amy was awesome as usual. I’d never be able to pull of these pack nights without her background, behind-the-scenes organization and project management skills.