Venue: Memorial Park

This is a joint West Orange / South Orange / Maplewood / Livingston/ Short Hills / Millburn West Orange / South Orange / Maplewood event co-sponsored Pack 3 (Maplewood/South Orange), Pack 8 (East Orange),  Pack 10 (South Orange), Pack 12 (Montclair), Pack 16  (Livingston), Pack 19 (Maplewood/South Orange), Pack 32 (Verona), Pack 38 (Newark), Pack 81 (Hillsdale), Pack 107 (West Orange), Pack 110 (West Orange), Pack 142 (Nutley), Pack 682 (East Orange), Pack 856 (North Caldwell),  Pack 4749 (Orange), and Pack 5027 (Bloomfield) .

Cub Scouts may invite other youth who may be interested in Cub Scouts to attend this event.  All are welcome to attend!

Description:

This event is friendly, non-competitive racing of Cubmobiles (soap box derby style racers) that each of the Packs have built (Pack 3 made two Cubmobiles). All Cubs will get the opportunity to “feel the need for speed” as they use gravity to “race” down the hill at Memorial Park in Maplewood (after a brief test to make sure that they can properly control the vehicle). We will use all available cars and match up cars and drivers with each race.  Parental assistance will be needed with set up, monitoring racing lanes, test drives, working with youth waiting to race, keeping all Cubs and siblings away from the race course when Cubmobiles are in motion, cleanup, etc.

Please come prepared for hot weather. Cub Scouts and parents are encouraged to bring water bottles, there will be water coolers to refill.  Cub Scouts please wear your Pack 3 yellow or red t-shirt  (“Class-B uniform”).  Please arrive promptly, as we plan to have an opening ceremony and take a group picture of the Cub Scouts and Cubmobiles before the racing begins.

If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to call or email your pack/den leaders.
Please do not forget the cameras and video cameras for this one!

Draft Schedule:

8:00am – 9:00am: leader/parent arrival and setup (we need people to arrive early to help set up)

9:00am – Noon: driver safety testing and racing

Noon – 12:30pm: breakdown and cleanup

In case of bad weather, we will notify families via email.

Important Safety Information:

=> Cubs must wear closed toe shoes (sneakers or hiking shoes are best). Avoid shoes which could easily fly off or cause the feet to slip while driving.

=> Cubs must wear a safety helmet when driving one of the Cubmobiles. Cubs are encouraged to bring a helmet with them that fits properly (a bike helmet will work fine; alternatively a baseball batting helmet, football helmet, or motocross helmet will also work).

=> Please note that elbow pads, wrist guards, knee pads, safety goggles, thigh pads, driving gloves, and shoulder pads are all optional…:-)=> Cubs will have the opportunity to practice in the Cubmobiles before racing down the big hill.

=> Cubs must demonstrate that they can stop the car using the hand brake before they will be allowed to race down the hill. Cubs must not try to use their feet to stop – the Cubmobiles will pick-up a fair amount of speed coming down the hill and the “Fred Flintstone”/”Barney Rubble” approach is not going to work! Worse than that, the Cub can seriously hurt a foot or ankle so we need to ensure that they MUST USE THE HAND BRAKE TO STOP.

For those who are curious, some additional documents have been attached here with information on how the cubmobiles are typically made but you should know that Pack 3 already has two Cubmobiles built and ready to race.