Awards at Scout Camp + Pinewood Derby

We had a nice campout at Cedar Hill State Park. The weather was reasonable, a bit cold, but reasonable.

We seldom camp at a real camp ground like this one, but since we had electricity, we took advantage of it to have waffles along with the standard fare of eggs and bacon.

Since all of the boys truly struggle to beat Syd (the Sloth) at fire building unless large quantities of gasoline are employed (referenced in bold print in "The Guide to Safe Scouting", though not in a positive light), we thought it would be educational to review firebuilding techniques then have a competition. The contest was to build a fire, started with no more than 3 matches, sufficient to burn through a jute string tied across two stakes 18" above the ground. Sounds simple enough, right? This is what it looked like:

As the boys contemplated the challenge, what tinder to use, how to compensate for the gale-force winds, and so forth, I considered appropriate awards. Candy can always work for kids right? But alas, they had been eating candy and junk all night! We did not need more sugar crazed boys running around with fire. As I promenaded myself about the camp ground pondering this enigma, I happened upon a small baby pacifier lying on the ground. It was in pristine condition. My first thought was, some baby and his parents are missing this! My second thought was, I can use this for an award! The notion of always awarding a prize to the winner had begun to set in my craw, and as it did, I had one of those Eureka! moments: we would make an award to the losing team, and having just acquired the necessary paraphenalia, we would give it a very special name, to be disclosed ONLY at the awards ceremony!

The three teams set about making fires. Some used small dry reeds. Others found cardboard and lit it off. One of the teams found that lowering the string might facilitate a rapid burn-thru(remember the scout law??).

So the fires were built and strings were burnt...

and whose team would come in last you ask, the dubious "winner" in my backwards event? Yes, you guessed it, my own son Zac and his two young teammates. You can imagine the eager anticipation as we made a big to-do over the heretofore "secret" prize to be given. This is all the boys lined up in Olympic podium fashion, eagerly awaiting the coveted (but as yet undisclosed) prize:

We made a great to-do over the award, then announced that the last-place team would be the recipient. Great dissatisfaction was voiced by the fastest teams until we held high in the air the prize pacifier while simultaneously announcing the the name of the award: the YOU SUCK award! There was but a very brief moment of disbelief, followed by a vociferous melange of various emotions, including though not limited to disgust/anger/angst/violence/vocal outcry/etc. by the winning loser as well as taunts, catcalls, mocking and derision from the losing winners. This pandamonium was immediately followed by Zac slamming into me with all his might, just the way a linebacker would attack a running back trying to get past him. OUch! After a brief tussle, here is a photo of the "winning" losing team. Notice Kayden (the one in green) had no issues with the new award:

The following week was what may well be the FINAL running of the pinewood derby for this Young family. Here is Dustin being issued his drivers permit for the race:

Last year Dustin was the pencil car. This year he is the guitar car, which you can see at the lower right of the photo.

While his car was not the fastest, it was not the slowest. There were many admirerers of the most unique guitar car (mostly Led Zepelin fans).

The end.