A Georgia Girl in Germany

For the first time in her Girl Scout career, MacKenzie was able to participate in a Powder Puff Derby. She designed and raced a car as part of a church derby in Alabama, but this was her first official scout derby. She worked hard on designing her car. Zachary pulled out his five previous Pinewood Derby cars, she found her winning car from four years ago, and she came up with a race car design that blended what she considered were the best attributes of each of the other models. She chose yellow because it’s bright, painted the driver’s outfit and used every last firebolt decal she had. I think it turned out pretty well.

Unfortunately, her car didn’t race very well. At all. We had difficulty getting the wheels aligned correctly. It took a lot of finagling to get them where we felt comfortable turning in her car. However, once the car is turned in, it’s impounded until after the races. Something must have came loose after we turned it in. We had it so precariously aligned, that I’m sure it didn’t take much.

Each car raced six times -- once per lane, so no car had an advantage if one lane ran faster than the others. MacKenzie’s car started off pretty well -- when gravity took control and led it down the incline. Unfortunately, her car had six DNF’s. My heart broke for her as she watched her car screech to a halt each time before crossing the finish line.

Even with the not-so-good races, she was glad she made the car, and handled defeat with grace. Maybe next time we’ll figure out how to get her wheels in better balance and alignment.

Labels: Girl Scouts, MacKenzie