Above: Brownie parents shared news that one of their own won the Cub Scouts’ big annual competition this year. (image edited from contributed photo)
Every winter, Southborough Cub Scouts hold a “Pinewood Derby” competition. This year, I received word of a town first in this year’s competition. The scout who won the top honor wasn’t a Cub Scout. It was a Southborough Girl Scout.
For those not familiar with the derby, scouts craft and customize small wooden “cars” by cutting/shaping and decorating pinewood blocks. (The blocks and wheels are from special BSA kits. And scouts have to adhere to national rules about size and weight.)
The cars are then placed on a sloped, side-by-side race track rigged to simultaneously release cars and to time when each crosses the finish line.
Several years ago, the Cub Scouts expanded their event to allow Girl Scouts to compete. This year, the top 3 GS winners were able to compete in the final town competition.*
8 year old Brownie Willa Barnes “won 2nd place and Best in Show in the Girl Scout portion of the race day, and then moved on to the Town Championships where she won it all! Her name will go on a plaque that resides in the Town Library.” (Photos below of the Brownie competition, Willa and her car “Wicked Fast” were contributed by Alanna Barnes.)
While Willa gets the top honors on the Town’s plaque, the top racers from Cub Scout packs 926 and Troop 1 presumably qualified to move on to the Cub Scouts’ District Championships.
*Note: I don’t know whether this is the first year the Girl Scouts winners were invited to take part in the town-wide finals or how long that goes back. When my oldest last competed as a Girl Scout in 2019, the GS winners (and BSA Chipmunks) didn’t move on to the Town finals, which were reserved for the Cub Scouts only.
