Girl Scouts race for the finish line

Top winners in the annual Girl Scouts' Powder Puff Derby held in the home economics building at the Vernon County Youth Fairgrounds on Saturday, April 21, stand in the winners' circle with their trophies and cars. Champion racers are in the front row, left to right: first place winner for the fastest time was Abi Young, she also had the fastest time in the Daisy category. Second place went to Brownie Breiann Ducharme and the third place trophy went to Macie Hansen, another Brownie. Other winners are left to right: cadette Mandy Crews and Kaela Wilde, senior Brooklyn Vincent and junior Kaitlyn Vincent

Girl Scouts from all over Vernon County brought their hand-made derby cars to the Vernon County Youth Fairgrounds on Saturday, April 21 to race for the finish line in the annual Powder Puff Derby.

A total of 45 racers in the Girl Scouts of America Daisy, Brownie, Cadette, Junior and Senior programs came to the fairgrounds with parents, friends, grandparents and brothers and sisters to see if their gravity powered car had the fastest time.

The derby actually begins weeks before race day when each girl is given an identical set of building materials with which to build a car that can't weigh more than five ounces. The kit contains a rectangular block of pine about eight inches long, a pair of metal axles and four plastic tires.

Racers are required to carve, saw, drill, paint and complete the project themselves before the official weigh-in on race day. Most cars come in light and need weight added. A heavier car tends to travel faster, according to troop leader Joelle Mason who conducted the official weigh-in station for the day's events. Racers added stick-on weights, coins, fishing sinkers and anything else handy that would get their car to the right weight.

Racing began with each racer expected to race their car eight times, according to Mason, but during the action a glitch in the timing device required a change of plans. Race official Troy Raney explained the problem to the crowd and said, "we're basically going to start the race over." Each car was to make three more runs and the top three winners were determined by the highest average time of the three electronically timed heats.

Mason interrupted the action occasionally to give away door prizes. Dozens of buttons, stickers, markers, crayons, toy jewelry and other items were given away. Racers and other kids had an opportunity to enter a coloring contest too. There were several entries in each category

The problems with the timing device didn't curb the crowd's enthusiasm and many of the spectators and racers spent the time eating hotdogs, chips, cookies and iced tea or lemonade. The races went on, but there may be some changes next year. According to organizer Carla Raney, they may go back to the old system next year. With that system the winning car in each heat hits a pressure sensitive switch at the end of the track which lights up the winning side.

Raney said she was very pleased with the turnout for the day's races. The competition went on for a couple of hours after the timing announcement, and in the end, winners were announced for the first, second and third place trophies. The fastest time in each category also took home a trophy and winners of the coloring contest were awarded ribbons.

Jenna Abbott's car, which was shaped, painted and decorated like a shoe was chosen as the winner for style. One car was fashioned into a monster truck shaped like a shark, and another was a beach setting with a palm tree. All the cars were colorful and showed a lot of thought and preparation. Kaela Wilde was given an award for the best gas mileage.

And after the races, what else but photographs in the winner's circle.