Rocket Derby

Megan and Rachael participated in the girl scouts Carnival Rocket Derby this past weekend. The work on the rockets themselves was done ahead of time. Each girl got a kit when they registered before Christmas and then Jim worked with them in the garage to sand, paint, and glue it together. Rachael named hers Yelco 4. Megan named hers Fly on Board.

The event was very festive. They had decorated the hall in a circus theme and at the center was the derby string track. The GS Juniors, Rachael's level, competed first. The girls in my troop were eager to watch the heats and root each on. Rachael's rocket did not fly well compared to the others but one of her close friends did really well and they cheered her success.

To keep the girls occupied during the downtime between heats the outer edge of the hall was set up with carnival games. Each girl had tickets to use on popcorn and games such as ring toss, bean bag throw, and donut eating off a string. The donut eating game was a hit. Rachael came back with 2 prizes from that booth because she was the only girl to get the whole thing in her mouth at one time.

The last level to go was the Daisy level, Megan age group. The organizers of the event had the heats projected on the big screen, so we always knew who's rocket was racing and who was coming up next. The used a nice piece of boy scout software to organize heats and record the winners and rankings. Megan watched the board for her rocket to come up and tracked which lane she was in. It was only the arrival of 3 clowns that distracted her from seeing her rocket win it's third heat. Her rocket wound up winning 3 of the heats and came in 2nd on the 4th. When all 26 heats were completed she received the 2nd place medal for the Daisys.

  The event ended with clowns, during which every kid got to be on stage at least once. Megan was picked to go up for a magic trick in which she grew a pot of flowers, then Rachael had a blast balancing a peacock feather on her finger, nose and forehead.