All downhill from here

Boy Scouts maneuver through cubmobile race course

Good, old-fashioned fun was back Saturday on State Street.

Roughly 25 Boy Scouts grades 1-5 hopped into handmade cubmobiles — similar to soap box cars — to glide down State Street for the annual race.

Staggered one at a time, the scouts were released from two ramps stationed at the top of a moderate hill.

With only the ability to change direction and brake, the boys had to steer clear of hay bales forming the track boundaries and secure the best run time in their scouting division.

“It’s the Boy Scout version of the soap box derby, like the Little Rascals,” said Five Rivers District Executive Bradley Kellerman.

The Boy Scouts built the vehicles themselves as a pack or used leftover carts from previous years.

Den Leader Tia Griffin said the scouts of pack nine, from Holts Summit, helped work on the cars and had been practicing with test runs before the official start of the race.

In addition to painting the cars, Griffin said the scouts helped make

modifications and learned about using power tools, like drills and power screwdrivers and wrenches.

“We had one work night because we had pack cars, so we just tuned them up and did it this year,” Griffin said. “We were there probably four hours, I think.”

Griffin said she appreciates how the event helps teach the scouts how to work on projects and build, and how it instills lessons of selfresponsibility and teamwork as they cheer each other on across the finish line.

The racers were given two opportunities to get the best time and win a plaque.

First, second and third place awards were given out to scouts in each of the webelo, bear, wolf and tiger categories for having the best trial time, and one award was given for the best in show.

“We don’t necessarily race them because they’re not professional drivers, so we don’t want them wrecking into each other,” Kellerman said. “They have a tendency to find the bales pretty quickly, especially the younger drivers.”

Kellerman said he was impressed with this year’s turnout at the race, considering membership has been down because of the pandemic and October is normally a busy month for Boy Scouts events.

The event was canceled last year because of COVID-19, Kellerman said, which made this year’s theme of “Escape the Great Indoors” all the more relevant.

“We’ve done summer camp and a lot of the units have been camping, but on the Cub Scout side of things, this is their big event,” Kellerman said. “They also did Day Camp this year as well, but this is the first event for new scouts that have been signing up between August and now.”

After starting off with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Scout’s Oath, scouts ran to the starting line to be first on deck as official time trials began.

Nate Runyan, the event organizer, said the day was about having fun, helping each other out and staying safe.

“If you wreck into a hay bale, pull it back out and keep going,” Runyan told the Boy Scouts before the race started. “If you wreck big time, just don’t worry about it and rerun. We want you to have fun and we want you to have two good runs.”

In addition to the hay bales providing cushion for crashes, the racers were donned in safety gear and the cars had seatbelts.

Colton Fecteau, a first-time racer, was one of the first scouts down the track.

“It’s pretty scary going the first time when you do it,” Colton said. “It’s so scary, but you get used to it.”

Like many of the scouts, Colton was driving a cart already crafted by his troop in previous years.

Casey Fecteau, Colton’s father, said the race was a good way for his son to meet and interact with other boys his age while being home schooled.

The Fecteaus began homeschooling their three children because of the COVID-19 pandemic and have no plans to return to public schooling, Casey said.

“With COVID going on right now it’s really hard to get him around other kids without worrying about sickness or just the normal craziness of the world,” he said. “So events like this, everyone is really positive and kind of has the same mentality. It’s easy to get the kids together and it just makes sense to see them happy.”

Casey and Colton said they plan to participate in the annual event next year, and may even build a new cart to race with.