The Official ClassB Blog

March 14th was our small town’s big parade. Its called Founders Day and we are lucky to have a front row seat. Our building is in the downtown historical district, right next to the park where the parade and activities are centered around. Our building has a decorative fenced raised area in front of it that we let various local groups use during events like this. This year we had the Girl Scouts selling cookies. My favorite of all time is the Apple Cinnamons cookie, but they did not have it this year

Best cookie ever

We also had a local Boy Scout Troop selling some Duct Tape Wallets they made. The wallets were very cool, I wish I had taken a picture of one. The scouts were very creative. Who knew you could do so much with duct tape? The Scouts also were the color guard for the parade.

Zephyrhills Founders Day Parade

The day before the parade, some of the girls in the store put together a impromptu Scouting recruiting display. We put it out in front of the Building on the porch area and had quite a few people look at it and some scout age boys express interest. We will probably upgrade it for next time. We plan on leaving it in our lobby all the time, since we often get people asking about scouting.

Impromptu Recruiting Display

We started making swatch cards while back. Why? Many people want a true representation of the color of the t-shirt. Everyone knows what Red is, but not many can tell the color of Avocado. This is especially an isue for packs with Navy and Royal and Troops with the various shades of khaki: Prairie dust, tan, and sand. So we came up with a clever way of showing the color of the shirt. We take business cards with the product info and attach little tiny t-shirt cut outs of the color. We originally were going to print the info on the tiny shirt shaped pieces, but any tiny crookedness or twist looked horrible. We did have lots of fun with trying how to print the small T-shirts. Can you spot one thats not crooked?

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Its hard to find one that is not crooked. Well we ended up with sticking it on a business card.

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To get them, you register on the site and then you can get up to 4 swatches. Why not more? The little things cost a lot to make and the cost for a full set of all colors is around $31 - ouch! So we figure we can give them away for free, as long as we keep the total amount we send out reasonable.

We think these will help people who are unsure which color to pick or are trying to match an existing color. A computer image or photo of shirt fabric just does not do the same thing.

Cory and I

Recently, Cory and I had the pleasure of being judges for Gulf Ridge Council Allohak Districtʼs Pinewood Derby. It was at the Mazda of Wesley Chapel, just a few minutes from ClassB. I must say I had a wonderful time. We arrived shortly after 10 A.M. to a sea of blue, gold, and khaki uniforms and the roar of excitement over the event. There was popcorn, hotdogs, drinks and laughter. Being that this was my first time at a Pine Wood Derby, I was looking forward to seeing how the races where conducted.

I figured the Cub Scouts would line up one-by-one and launch their own cars down the track. Instead, a wooden ramp was erected with 3 lanes. The Cubmaster placed the cars on the ramp and announced which 3 would be racing. Gravity, not the Scouts, would push the cars down to the finish line. It was very organized and the way the track was set up every Scout had a great view of the action.

What a view!

The scouts and their supporters were huddled around the race track, nervous with anticipation to see if their car would be the one to take home the gold. There was so much tension in the air as the Cubmaster released the cars down the ramp. I found myself so involved I forgot I had a job to do (not that I considered this work).

Cory and I judged the cars for creativity; the scouts didn’t make this easy. We saw a large variety of cars. There were stock cars, trucks, and even Hummers! There were also Bat-mobiles, and one Scout even made a Wii game system controller. My personal favorite was the Indiana Jones car, complete with a Lego Indiana Jones figure cleverly placed in the driver’s seat. I took my responsibility seriously. As one of the graphic artists for ClassB, I can certainly appreciate the imagination and craftsmanship put into each entry.

The Hummer

The categories were Space, Historic, Cub Scouts, Military, Sports and Movies with winners in the Webelos, Tiger Cubs, and Cub Scouts age groups. Cory and I examined every car carefully and made sure the contest rules were followed. After several minutes of arguing back and forth, we came to agreement on the winners. We stayed for a short time after the races taking pictures, mingling and in my case, checking out how many of the t-shirts worn to the event were ClassBʼs designs! (I’m happy to report a great many of them were!)

I truly look forward to my next Scouting event and I plan on volunteering for many more. Special thanks to Allohak District and Gulf Ridge Council for allowing us to experience the full throttle fun of Pinewood Derby!

Do you see the Wii remote and Indiana Jones?