Saturday morning was race day at Raymond C. Buckley Elementary School as 38 cub scouts, ages 6 to 11 (1st grade to 5th grade), raced cars they made themselves.  It was the annual Pack 48 Pinewood Derby, which challenges young scouts to be creative by turning a block of wood into a primo racing car.

"Mostly it's the fun of making the cars with their families and knowing that you start with a block of wood and come out with an amazing car at the end of it," says Pack 48 Cub Master Lynn Green.  "Some of them are so beautiful to look at.  They're astounding.  The creativity is phenomenal."




The annual event turns the elementary school cafeteria into a mini-Watkins Glen.  A couple of Dads place the cars at the starting line at the top of a five-lane track.  A latch releases all the cars at once, and the winner is clocked when it reaches the finish line.  Entries from each den race each other, then the cars with the top scores from each den race to determine the overall derby champions.

Everybody gets a certificate.  Each gets a patch segment for their uniform.  Third, second and first place winners get a bronze, silver or gold medal.  The winners from each den race in the pack finals.  First, second and third place winners get a trophy.

The top three winners from each den may choose to compete in the District Pinewood Derby at which every cub pack in Tompkins and Cortland Counties compete on February 7th at the TST BOCES campus.

The track was hand made in 1994 for Cub Scout Pack 26 by Thomas Bordoni with materials donated by Borg Warner.  They used it to hold races for family events and loaned it to Pack 48 each year for the derby.  After they purchased a new track for their own use they donated Bordoni's to Pack 48.

Since then the track has become quite high-tech.  A group of scouts positions themselves at the finish line, where they operate a switch that releases the cars from the top of the track, all at the same time.  That also begins a computer countdown, and the computer determines the winner, automatically displaying the race times on a screen.  Each car races in each lane to make sure that imperfections in one lane or another doesn't skew the final score.

"Each car gets to reach in each lane so that it's fair," Green says.  "It's all timed so the computer works out who is the winner."


Kids In Action Now raises cash for nets to fight malaria in Africa

While all this is going on another race was taking place in the lobby.  About a dozen Kids In Action Now (KAN) 3rd through 6th graders were selling concessions to raise money for the Nothing But Nets program.  For every ten dollars raised a mosquito net is sent to Africa to save children from mosquitos carrying malaria.  Each net can protect up to four people.

"The sad statistic is that there used to be one child who died every 30 seconds," says KAN advisor Bonnie Blair.  "We've been doing this for seven years now, and that number has dropped because of the world-wide focus on eradicating malaria.  Now one child dies every 60 seconds.  That's still way too many, but there are more than half a milllion kids that live every year because of programs like this."

Blair says the Lansing KAN kids partnered with the Cub Scouts because the Boy Scouts of America were a founding partner in the program in 2007.  KAN has been part of the Lansing Pinewood Derby ever since.

Den	Winner
Tiger	Alex Boles
Wolf	Colin Tarbert
Bear	Stephen Geise
Webelo I	Nick Scanlon
Webelo II	Kaydin Golden
Overall Pack Finish
1. Stephen Geise 2. Nick Scanlon 3. Colin Tarbert
Artistic
Den	Winner
Tiger	Scott Leo Yoest and Nathaniel Ronsvalle
Wolf	Andrew Knapp
Bear	Stephen Geise
Webelo I	Harrison Brown
Webelo II	Eadin Oaks-Doan

Back in the cafeteria another competition was taking place.  Last year an artistic category was added.  Cars were lined up on a long table, and each scout got to vote on which was the best looking in each den by dropping a ticket into a cup in front of the car.  The only rule was that a scout could not vote for his own car.  The cars in each den with the most tickets won.

"Each cub gets to choose their favorite car from each den," Green says.  "So the beautiful cars can win as well as the fast cars."

Each year the Pinewood Derby is organized and set up by parents, who get as excited as their scouts.  Many of the parents work with their children to build the cars, as well as setting up the cars and the track for the big day.

"I like it when the track works and we start the races and seeing the boys get excited and start the first race," says one Dad, Will Tarbert.  "It's always a little tricky getting it set up, so once it's working and ready to go it's always good from there."

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