Photo By Rick Emert | FORT CARSON, Colo. — Family members look on as cars are judged after competing...... read more read more
By Walt Johnson
Mountaineer staff
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Members of the Mountain Post community came together Sept. 24, 2o022, at the Elkhorn Conference Center as the Army Community Service office sponsored a pinewood derby.
The derby gave parents and their children an opportunity to work on a project together which involved building a car from scratch that would be used to run races on a portable track. Each of the families that built cars were involved in races with other families that tested the cars in two categories, best design and fastest car.
People came out to the event for various reasons but the one thing in common was that each participating families were more than thrilled to be able to work on a project with their child. Oscar Marroquin and his wife learned of the event while they were at the ACS in a play group with their son and they thought it would be a great chance to take part in an activity that could help them have a memory of a lifetime.
“One of the ladies that runs the play group at the ACS told us about the event. After hearing about it we went to the individual running the program and signed up for it. We felt it was just a great opportunity to just share a moment with our kids,” Marroquin said.
Marroquin said after learning what it would take to build the car, he didn’t have the tools he needed but he also knew they would figure out a way to make the car. He said it was an opportunity to do something with the children they were more than happy to take on. “We just decided we would make the car and then decorate it the best we could. We just cut it however we wanted, I made a quick angle cut and then added everything we wanted to complete building the car. It was fun because it was something he had never done before and that will make it memorable,” Marroquin said.
Patrick Hemond also participated in the event with his son. When Hemond was about the same age as his son; he and his dad participated in a similar event which made the father-son event even more special for him.
“I think the biggest thing I got out of this is the father-son time we got working on this project. Most of us here are military and you don’t always have the time to have a bonding experience like this often. But I was very excited to do this because when I was my son’s age, I did a similar type of thing with my father. Now being able to do this with my son is just so awesome and just a blessing to me. I can relate to how my father must have felt because it was fun for me to do this with my son as it must have been fun for him to do this with me when I was my son’s age. When I told my dad we were doing this he was super excited for us, and he reminded me that he still has the cars we built when I was a kid,” Hemond said.
Justin Cole, ACS New Parent Support Program coordinator said the objective of the event was to give parents the chance to spend quality time building the cars they used to race and then taking part in the day’s family friendly event.
“I was very happy to see the number of families that came out today for this event. It’s important for our Soldiers today, many of whom may have grown up in the military themselves, to have these types of events. To see this type of program carrying on year after year and to have the opportunity to work with the children,” Cole said.
| Date Taken: | 09.24.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.28.2022 15:46 |
| Story ID: | 432237 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 8 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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