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I was once a Cub Scout and I can remember the fun and energy that came with the highlight of Cub Scout, the pinewood derby. This exiting event concludes of each scout receiving a block of pine wood, and with the help of a parent, turn the block into a car that will be raced against other cars to decide the fastest. For a cub scout, there are few things as fun as watching the car you built win races against your fellow scouts cars. In addition, the time you spent building and designing the car, is a good bonding experience with your father or mother.

Although there are some technical rules, what the scout does with the design of the car is entirely up to them. in my scouting experience I've seen all kinds of designs; cars, trucks, model cars and cars that express the personality of the scout. I've found that some families get very into it and do special things to the cars to try harder to win. Others, like me, made designs just for the fun of it and not really care who wins. This phase of the pinewood derby is just opportunity for parents to be involved their children's lives through scouting.

The night of the pinewood derby the atmosphere is incredible. Every scout has a chance to show off their car that they worked on and enjoy the work of others. Before the race actually starts, there is a line of inspectors that make sure your car meets all of the specific qualifications. The track is around thirty feet in length and is set in place as parents and friends gather to watch the cars race. Each scout has a chance to race against however they want to decide the cars with the fastest time. After the racing awards are giving out including top three fastest times, coolest design, most creative, and ext. In my pinewood career, I have never actually had a fast car but the experience was great none the less.
After all the fun of the pinewood derby there is one thing left, that is the car that the scout helped build. I still have all four of my cars in a box somewhere. Every now and again I take them out to remember the fun and happiness brought by the pinewood derby. I never competed in the pinewood derby to win, or beat people. Actually, I never placed out of the bottom 3. That's because, the point of the pinewood derby is to create a cool car that you'll cherish for a long time. Some of my car designs include; a dominoes pizza delivery car, block of Swiss cheese, and a whale which were all admittedly not the most aerodynamic.

Learn more about this author, Drake Morgan.
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