January 7, 2005

News Briefs

Campbell’s Cub Scout Pack 333 to hold annual Pinewood Derby

Campbell Cub Scout Pack 333 will hold the annual Pinewood Derby, one of the most popular events in Cub Scouting, on Saturday, Jan. 15 at the West Valley Memory Post 99 Legion Hall, 1344 Dell Ave. The Post sponsors Pack 333.

Every year more than a million boys and parents nationwide team up to carve, decorate, weigh, adjust, fret over and finally race a Pinewood Derby car. The first Pinewood Derby was held in 1953 by Cub Scout Pack 280 of Manhattan Beach, Calif., and as of 1991 more than 81 million Pinewood Derby model car kits had been sold.

According to Liz Hasenberg, Pack 333’s Pinewood Derby chair, Cub Scout parents are needed as volunteers to sell refreshments on race day, check in and weigh in Scouts on weigh-in night, Jan. 12, serve on race day as judges, crowd control personnel and other functions. Hasenberg may be contacted at pwd2005@pack333.org.

The purpose of the Pinewood Derby is to help a Cub Scout build a team relationship with his parent or helper, experience the sense of accomplishment and the excitement of competition, learn win/lose good sportsmanship and to have fun. The model cars are made of wood to specified dimensions, created, carved, assembled and decorated by Cub Scouts under the guidance of parents or helpers. The cars are gravity-powered and run down a special track, which will be constructed at the Legion Hall the day before the event.

First- and second-place Tiger Cubs and first and second-place Cub Scout/Webelos winners from each Pack are eligible to enter the Pioneer District Pinewood Derby, to be held Saturday, Feb. 5 at Queen of Apostles, 4950 Mitty Way, San Jose. All Scouts and their families are invited to come and watch the representatives from their Pack.

West Valley Memory Post 99 has 746 members, most of them in the South Bay Area. Congress chartered the American Legion in 1919 as a patriotic, mutual-help, and wartime veterans’ organization. A community service organization that now numbers nearly three million members—men and women—in nearly 15,000 American Legion Posts worldwide, these posts are organized into 55 departments—one each for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico and the Philippines.

Call (408) 379-6420 for more information about the West Valley Memory Post.