Gillfield Hosts Annual Pine Wood Derby

 

On Saturday, April 3, Gillfield Baptist Church hosted their annual Pinewood Derby for the Cub Scouts. The race was superb! For the first time, there was an open class race, which allowed more categories of racers to participate. This year featured categories for: Adult racers, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts.

The Pinewood Derby is a racing event that was created for Cub Scouts and is a part of the Boy Scouts of America Program. Cub Scouts, with the help of parents, build their own cars from wood, usually from kits containing a block of pine, plastic wheels and metal axles.

Cub Master Don Murphy organized the first Pinewood Derby, held on May 15, 1953, in Manhattan Beach, California, by Pack 280. Murphy’s son was too young to participate in the popular Soap Box Derby races, so he came up with the idea of racing miniature wooden cars. The cars had the same gravity-powered concept as the full-size Soap Box Derby cars, but were much smaller and easier to build. After Don Murphy’s first race in 1953, the Los Angeles County Department of Recreation copied the Pinewood Derby with Murphy’s permission.

In the 1980’s the design of the block was changed from a cutout block, consistent with a 1940’s style front-engine Indy 500 car, to a solid block. The tires were also changed from narrow, hard plastic to wider “slicks.”

Today, with the popularity of the Pinewood Derby, other organizations have developed similar events, and a small industry has been developed to provide tracks, timers, scales and other products.

With all the improvements that have been made, Gillfield Cub Scouts maintain a traditional wooden track, with a mechanical scale and individuals who work as timers each year. Still, the girls, boys, and adults alike had a wonderful time with lots of food and racing their individual self built cars.

Boys who competed in the race at Gillfield went on to compete in the Crater District Boy Scouts of America district race hosted by Stronsider Chevrolet in Prince George, Virginia. Boys from all over the district competed and ribbons and trophies were awarded to all of the winners and participants. It was a great day at the races for the kids, parents, relatives and friends.

Webelo Scout, Marques Meredith Receives Cub Scout’s Top Honor

Gillfield Scouts Host Blue and Gold Ceremony

Gillfield In The News

Beloved,

We pray that all of our friends and church family members are well.  No matter where you are, we pray that you feel the comforting touch of the Holy Spirit. Oh, and by the way, there’s a nice picture and two page article about Gillfield Baptist Church in the Richmond Times Dispatch. It’s located in the insert for Black History Month.

Here is a link to that article:
http://marketplace.timesdispatch.com/SS/Page.aspx?secid=77728&pagenum=8&sstarg=&facing=false&

Blessings always,

Pastor Lyons

Haitian Relief Offering

During Lent, we will receive a special offering for our Christian sisters and brothers in Haiti. Our gifts will be forwarded to our Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention and will be used to assist those directly impacted by the quake. Please note in the memo line of your check or on your offering envelope “Haitian relief”.

Gillfield Scouts Bring Home Prize Trophies

Congratulations to Gillfield’s Boy Scouts 

On January 23, 2010, our WEBELOS of Cub Scout Pack 100 and our Boy Scouts of Troop 100 placed among the top three in the Crater District Klondike Derby- map reading, land navigation and orienteering- competition held at Albright Scout Reservation.  The competition required scouts to locate eight unknown point in the woods and along the way they were required to demonstrate Scout knowledge in several areas to include: knot tying and identification, first aid, water rescue, leaf identification, cooking, camp fire building and environmental protection.

The Klondike derby, started in 1949, is an annual event held by Boy Scouts of America  (BSA) districts during the winter months and is based on the heritage of the Klondike Gold Rush. 

The event varies by district, but the typical Klondike derby consists of a series of stations where units must test their Scout skills, knowledge and leadership ability, earning points towards a total score.

The stations are often named after classic Scout images, saying or symbols such as: the Scout Motto, the Promise, Bear, Wolf, and Tender Foot.  The person in charge of the station is often a Scout leader or parent volunteers. The unit will remain at a station for a predetermined time before moving to the next station, in a round robin fashion.

The Crater District competition lasted for eight hours and the boys were tested and examined from start to finish, as they navigated their way through the woods.   At the end of the day, our Scout and WEBELOS patrols had a total of seven boys to enter the competition (2 WEBELO Scouts and 5 Boy Scouts).  Both earned a third place trophy.  Congratulations to the Gillfeild Baptist Church Scouts and their Leadership for a job well done.

Scouting For Food

On November 7, 2009, the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts of Pack and Troop 100 from Gillfield Baptist Church went scouting for food.  Scouting for Food is a food collection effort carried out by Boy Scouts, Ventures, and Cub Scouts from our community. The food drive is organized at the district level; in this case, it was the Crater District. Crater Scouts distribute food drive donation bags from the Richmond Food Bank throughout the district which covers an area as far south as South Hill, Virginia. Gillfield Scouts were assigned a designated area that covered all of College Park, Trojan Woods and Ettrick.  The bags were distributed on November 1, 2009.  The Gillfield Scouts returned to pick up the bags filled with donated food on November 7, 2009. The bags were collected and carried to local food collection point and than taken to the Richmond Food Bank by tractor trailer truck.  Gillfield Scouts had the highest collection percentage of any scout organization within the district.

Scouting for Food is a project rooted in the very foundation of the Scouting movement. Through initiative and hard work, the Scouts have developed a framework that can help local food Banks feed tens of thousands of needy local residents with emergency aid. It is up to the people of your community to make Scouting for Food a success.

The Scouting for Food Campaign will continue to bring Scout units closer to their Chartered Organizations and communities by focusing their food campaign efforts on providing food for the needy. The campaign is flexible and units may schedule their campaign at a time convenient for their members and based on the needs of their local Food Bank.  Congratulations to the Gillfield Scouts and thanks to all the scout units that participated in the campaign.

Special Guest, Mrs. Amina Luqman-Dawson

On Sunday, March 8, special guest, Mrs. Amina Luqman-Dawson, author of African Americans in Petersburg will worship with us. She will be available for a special signing following morning worship.

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