My husband, Josh, is the co-leader of our daughters’ Girl Scout troop along side another dad. Several years ago the two of them, both former Boy Scouts, suggested the girls get involved in Pinewood Derby. The Boy Scouts have been doing it forever and there’s lots to be learned through the experience so why shouldn’t the girls give it a go and our service area leaders agreed. The first year we actually had the girls run on the boys’ track after the boys’ races were done. The next they pushed for the service area to purchase their own Girl Scout Grand Prix track.
The girls worked hard planning their designs, cutting their cars, sanding them, and making sure they put the weights in just right so they would be super fast.
We never want lack of access to tools to hold a girl back from participating so my lovely husband opened up his workshop for girls to come build their cars on two different Saturdays. He is such a cheerleader for everyone and wants all the girls to have fun so he’s been super open about offering tips and advice to people who ask.
Our daughters had very little help from us. They picked their designs, princesses and a dead fish. When the twins said princesses they asked me to help them draw their favorite princesses, Cinderella and Jasmine. So I had to draw the princesses on a piece of paper for them to use as a guide to cut the cars, their dad helped them cut the fine details on the saw, and we simply guided them through the rest of the process. They were very hands on every step of the way and that gives them a real sense of pride when the car performs well. (Poor Mia was super sick in this picture. She had a really bad cold, but we were running short on time and she had to finish putting her wheels on her car.)
Considering I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination I think the princess cars turned out pretty well. If they had made me draw their faces it would’ve been a disaster though. I think they were pretty happy with the results.
There were almost 70 cars registered for this year’s Girl Scout Grand Prix which was open to all the troops in the Cranberry Valley Service Area. There were four classes, Daisy/Brownie, Open, Vintage, and Junior/Cadette/Senior/Ambassador. The open class was for anyone to enter so some of the girls’ brothers raced their Pinewood Derby cars. The vintage class included all cars that had raced in the past some the very distant past LOL. My husband entered a car that he won 1st place with in a Pinewood Derby in the late 1980s and won 2nd place!
My twins competed in the Daisy/Brownie class and Kenzie came in 2nd with her Princess Cinderella car and Zoey won first place with her Princess Jasmine car. Mia raced in the J/C/S/A class and took 2nd with her dead fish car.
We had so much fun on a great day of racing. Thank you to all the racers, parents, volunteers and organizers for making this happen. This is one thing about Girl Scouts I know my girls will remember forever. Can’t wait to see what designs the girls come up with for next year.
