Cub Scouts and Laurel BMW of Westmont Team Up to Bring Automotive Awareness to Kids through Pinewood Derby(R)

Laurel BMW of Westmont has donated a new state-of-the-art Pinewood Derby® track to Cub Scout Pack 10 of Hinsdale and will host future racing events at its dealership facility located at 430 E. Ogden Avenue in Westmont, IL. The next Pinewood Derby® is scheduled for February 2015. Other activities will follow later in the year.

“We are delighted to work with the Cub Scouts on this program,” said Laurel BMW General Manager Pat Womack. “It’s a great opportunity for us to introduce the automotive industry and racing to the youth in our area and at the same time, help them develop the values, education, and skills they need to succeed in life–it’s a win/win.”

Pinewood Derby® is a classic Cub Scout event in which young boys and their parents design and build model cars and competitively race them in heats. The brightly painted cars, many of innovative design, run on a sloping ramp that allows the models to reach speeds of 20 miles per hour (mph), the scale equivalent of 200 mph in a full-scale vehicle. The event was initially developed for a Cub Scout pack in New York in 1953 and has become a highly valued and respected part of the Cub Scout program across the nation.

“Scouting leaders recognize the Pinewood Derby® as a powerful teaching tool. In the process of designing, building and racing the model cars, both youth and parents strengthen bonds, share responsibility, develop teamwork, learn new skills, exercise creativity, build sportsmanship, and make new friends,” said Robert Rocque, Cub Master for Pack 10.

More information about the Pinewood Derby® can be found at http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/Activities/Adults/derbies....

Support for the Cub Scouts’ partnership with Laurel BMW of Westmont can be shown by liking their Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LaurelBMW.

Cub Scout Pack 10 is part of the Boy Scouts of America’s Des Plaines Valley Council, which currently serves 42 communities in the western and southwestern suburbs of Chicago. The Council is recognized as one of the oldest local Boy Scout organizations in the Nation, having offered its programs to youth in these communities for most of Scouting’s more than 100-year history. Pack 10, hosted by the Union Church in Hinsdale, recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. For more information: http//hinsdalecubscouts.org/

Starting in 2014, the Scouting programs in this area will join with three other area councils to become part of a new, larger and more efficient council currently being organized to expand and improve the Scouting program being offered to youth. For more information, see: http://betterstrongerscouting.org/

-BSA-

Credit, if needed: Gary Pitchford, BSA Des Plaines Valley Council