Awana Derby

Last night we had the AWANA Derby at church. It was a lot of fun! If you are not familiar with the AWANA Derby it is where kids build little pinewood derby cars with a parent (some build with a grandparent) and then they bring them to church and we race them. Not only do we race them to see who is the fastest but the cars are judged for Best of Show based on their design / decoration of their car.
It is always interesting to look at all the cars and see them race. I find there are three types of cars (in essence parents) represented-
1. cars who are most definitely trying to go for speed (mostly parent made)
2. cars who obviously the child did most of the work and was really working on the car looking good (often not always the fastest car because in my experience the child has done most the work; although some are fast and look good)
3. cars who tried hard to be fast and look good but are just glad to be a part of the race

It is amazing to me the measures some will go to in making their child's car fast.
The main thing in this event is for kids to spend time with their parent(s) creating the car together (while they make memories).
Some comments I heard last night-

"Alright"
"my cars wheels are wiggly"
"what is wrong with my car?"
"I'm going to lose again, will I ever win?"
"AWESOME!"
"That was a close race, cool"
"Great, you won this time"
"We are having a technical glitch, thank you for your patience"
"Next year I am going to do ............ to my car"

It was a lot of fun and can't wait to see the cars next year.

Might I add that the winner is a child due to physical reasons can not participate in a lot of sports or extracurricular activities- therefore does not have the opportunity to "win" at many things..... His dad is one that works with him to make his car really fast and he has won for several years. His parents have shared with me they work so hard with him to make his car the fastest because it is one thing he can succeed in. I wish you could see how proud he is of his car and excited about the race. He tries his best not to smile when his car wins each heat and when I call his name to claim his Fastest Car trophy- but he can't contain his little smile- the corners of his mouth turn up in a grin as he tries to suppress it-- it is priceless! It is an awesome privilege to see the other racers, their parents and grandparents be excited for him.