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Pinewood Races Teach Inner-City Scouts Fairness
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The five-ounce block of pinewood a boy holds in his hands at the Williamson Elementary School teaches him character, responsibility, fairness, patriotism, teamwork and other virtues that Cub Scouts strive for.
The five-ounce blocks of wood that more than 500 boys sanded and decorated this month in seven inner-city schools -- four in Youngstown and three in Warren -- became racecars in the Pinewood Races held in the gymnasiums of the schools.
Two at a time, the 46 racers built by third-graders at Williamson sped nearly 30 feet in the tracks in the school gym Wednesday. One Scoutreach coordinator, Mike Homlitas, released the cars from a five-foot high platform down a nine-foot incline of 45 degrees and they traveled another 20 or so feet, crossing the finish line monitored by another coordinator, Kathy Hankey, and stopped on a three-foot braking section.
A Cub Scout picked up the cars, crossed them in front of his body and ran back to Homlitas so he could start another race with the cars traveling in the other lanes.
The first race in the first heat ended in a tie, Hankey ruled, and directed a rerun in the same lanes. One narrowly edged the other. With the cars switched to the opposite lanes, Homlitas again released the cars and the winner of the second race, third-grader Onesimo Vivei, saw his car win by a foot.
So it went late morning and into the afternoon, racers sometimes jumping their lanes, occasionally stopping short of the finish line. The boys cheered their cars as Hankey placed the losers in one box and the winners in another to race in another round of heats in the single-elimination contest.
The Pinewood Races is one aspect of Scoutreach, a program sponsored by the Greater Western Reserve Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Farmers National Bank, Canfield, the United Way of Youngstown and Mahoning County and the Cafaro Family Foundation.
The event began with the boys saluting the flag, two fingers held to their foreheads, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and then the Cub Scout oath.
In Youngstown, Hankey and Homlitas distributed the blocks of pinewood in mid-February in the Martin Luther King Jr., Taft and Harding elementary schools as well, instructing the Cub Scouts in grades one through four on how to make the blocks as aerodynamic as possible. One week the boys spent an hour sanding their blocks, rounding the rough corners and shaping the soft wood. The next week they spent another hour coloring and decorating the wood.
Because pine splinters easily, Hankey (with Boy Scout Troop 54, sponsored by the Bazetta-Cortland Optimists Club) and Homlitas (with Troop 15 in Warren, sponsored by Knights of Columbus Council 620), cut two grooves in the undersides of the racers and installed the axles and wheels.
In the three Warren schools – Willard, McGuffey and Harding – Scoutreach coordinators Bud Bower (with Troop 63 in Windham) and Suzanne Sapic (with Troop 54) did the same.
Scoutreach is an effort by the Boy Scouts to interest boys in inner-city schools to become enthused about Scouting and carry that enthusiasm over by joining the Boy Scouts when they turn 13, says John Barkett, community affairs director for Scoutreach. While first- and second-graders in the seven elementary schools join the Cub Scouts, nine is the usual age to join.
Money is not as abundant as Scoutreach would like. (It has a $16,000 annual budget, Barkett says.) So the 600 or so boys recruited to become Cub Scouts lack the traditional blue-and-yellow uniforms. Instead their uniforms consist of T-shirts that identify their affiliation with the Cub Scouts.
The Greater Western Reserve Council, with the financial help of the other three sponsors, underwrite the expense of Scoutreach and provide all of the volunteers. No school funds are used, Barkett points out.
The principal at Williamson, Wanda Clark, endorses Scoutreach, relating how it helps her school academically and has reduced unexcused absences. Scoutreach, she said, “has a domino effect. It builds individual character and that transfers to the classroom. It improves student achievement and behavior. It’s helped in so many ways, [including] discipline in the classroom.”
About five years ago, Clark recalls, Scoutreach approached her about starting the program as Williamson. She’s been pleased with the results. “I like the camaraderie it’s brought,” the principal says. “The Scout masters have been just wonderful. … You can see them helping to build character and [see Scoutreach’s role in] developing leadership skills. Our students are working together and playing together.”
Today Hankey and Homlitas will be at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School where they will set up the Pinewood Races course, starting the Cub Scouts’ cars there and judging the winners.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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