Help me brainstorm some auxiliary unofficial Pinewood Derby awards

[Liz]

I'm kind of stuck at "Most Creative," "Sportiest Looking," and "Sparkliest" cars. Help me out here.  

[cocomax]

Carefullest Driver, Off Road Enthusiast, Best Paint Job, Fastest Looking,  

[CubScoutIdeas]

I have a blog post with lots of ideas. https://cubscoutideas.com/2334/pinewood-derby-award-ideas/

Hope that helps!

[Liz]

Thanks!

[my_three_sons]

We always created design categories since not everyone has the means or the know how to compete on speed. We gave out a certificate for each rank then a trophy for the winner in each category.  We came out awards for best in show, blackest black, hand decorated, hand painted {my favorite}, scout theme, sports theme, military theme, American theme but if you just google cub scout pinewood derby themes there will be more than you can ever imagine.

[Bobbylefebvre]

We did parents choice and kids choice this year. The results were interesting. A kid glued a fortnite sticker to his car and won kids choice... smh

Edited April 19, 2019 by Bobbylefebvre

[desertrat77]

@Bobbylefebvre, welcome to scouter.com!

[The Latin Scot]

We always have: Fastest Car, Marathon Winner (the slowest car (which has to make it past the finish line to count)), Most Creative, Best Craftsmanship, and Scout's Choice. Every boy who enters a car receives a participation medal as well. 

Of all the awards, the most coveted is easily the Marathon Winner, and we actually have two set of brackets to accommodate the competition for both the fastest and slowest cars. It's become easy to figure out how to make a car fast, but to make it slower than every other car while still making it all the way down the track? THAT can be just as tricky. And the nice thing is, there is no one "winner" of the evening. There are many, but of differing kinds, which I think makes the whole day much less stressful.

[Eagle1993]

We have a marathon winner with similar rules.  It is great for scouts on their 4th or 5th PWD that are bored with the other awards.  Also, it’s great for those that just have slower cars and keeps them interested.  We give the slowest car the “Es-Car-Go” award...

[SSScout]

Best Scout theme,  Best Movie theme, Most realistic model,  Most Likely to Be Copied By Others Next Year,,,,

[mrkstvns]

• Best name (for cars that are named....Dragon Wagon, etc.)
• Ugliest (in a good way!  or maybe "Scariest")
• Good job Dad!  (for the car that looks like only an adult would have made it)

[MikeS72]

In addition to those already mentioned, we have best super hero category.

[RememberSchiff]

Read this story  regarding Veterans serving a Rockland, Maine Cub Scout Pack  back in the day

There was one thing that used to irritate me no end. Each spring, the boys and their parents would build official Pinewood Derby cars, little wooden things on wheels we would then race on a track we stored at the Congregational Church.

The idea was to produce a few top racers who would go to the annual Council Pinewood Derby races, a process normally achieved by the standard method of eliminating boys whose cars lost in each heat.

This tended to produce increasing numbers of boys and parents who were no longer involved and instead had to hang around the church hall for ages, waiting for the winners to be determined. All that effort and yet so little involvement, is how I saw it.

I asked the Pack committee to agree to new rules. Each boy could race his car as often as he cared to, and would accumulate stickers that we stuck underneath the cars to show how many first, second and third places each car achieved.

When we all had enough and decided to call it a day, we simply counted up the number of stickers showing first place wins on each car, and the three top first-placers were declared our Pack winners. At least it kept all the boys engaged through the entire event, rather than kicking them out altogether.

...

My time with the Rockland Cubs taught me a lot about how people can get things done when they work together thoughtfully, whether they are vets or not, and certainly regardless of their politics. How much things seem to be diminished today, when I think back to my time with of a bunch of Rockland-area parents back in the 90s who simply agreed to do their best for their boys, the community of youngsters who are now the not-so-very-young adults all around us.

We blundered, we bumbled, we still got things done. It sure didn’t hurt that we happened to have a few good vets sprinkled among our numbers.

Source link:  A few good vets

https://knox.villagesoup.com/p/a-few-good-vets/1878046

Edited December 11, 2020 by RememberSchiff