The Sanatoga Post

Derby cars are ready to roll down their open track

POTTSTOWN PA – Today is Race Day!

Well, it is if you’re a Cub Scout in the greater Pottstown area. The local scouting district will conduct its annual Pinewood Derby races for the area’s cub packs today (Saturday, April 2, 2011) beginning at 9 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 750 N. Evans St., Pottstown PA.

The Pinewood Derby is a classic, 58-year-old gravity-driven race between hand-held, hand-made cars. They consist of a rectangular block of wood, about 7 inches long and 2 inches square, shaped by carving or sawing into a car-like appearance and fitted with wheels. To ensure fairness, all cars must be built from identical kits manufactured for the Boy Scouts of America.

Scouts and their parents or grandparents usually design and build their cars together. The fruit of such local efforts flourishes today, when competitors will assemble at the church to determine whose car is fastest.

David Faulkner, a former volunteer with Pack 146 in Pottstown who now serves as a Pottsgrove School District director, calls the derby “a great event” that involves tremendous “time and effort (from) these boys and volunteers.”

HE EARNED SCOUTING’S HIGHEST HONOR – The ranks of Eagle Scout award recipients – which includes some of the nation’s most decorated military heroes, astronauts, business executives and community leaders – grew by one Sunday (Jan. 23, 2011), as Pottstown resident Alan James “AJ” Ebersole III received the honor during ceremonies conducted at St. Aloysius Catholic Church’s Begley Hall in the borough. Leaders of Scout Troop 249, left at top, and his father, Alan, at right, watched as his mother, Rita, pinned the red, white and blue-ribboned medal to Ebersole’s uniform in the mid-afternoon event. Ebersole, bottom left, of Third Street, Pottstown, is a senior at Pope John Paul II High School in Royersford PA. He reciprocated in turn, bottom right, by presenting both his parents with mementos of the occasion. In addition, state Rep. Tom Quigley, and Pottsgrove American Legion Post 244 Commander Ed Clark and Adjutant Billy Worrell, attended to offer their congratulations and commendations from the community, the post, and Pottstown Chapter 656 of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

Photos from Billy Worrell