$1,500 Scholarship!!!

Today is a day we will never forget.  Luke won the State Pinewood Derby Championship and got a $1,500 scholarship from America First.  I can hardly believe it!  Thank you so much America First! We almost didn't go to compete because Keith was so busy but he decided at the last second he could go.  I'm so glad we did.  It was a really exciting day. 

If you know Luke, you know he is a really calm kid.  He was fun to watch during the race.  He looked calm but he was so nervous.  He had butterflies in his stomach, his palms were sweaty and he tried to figure out what his heart rate was because he said it was racing. 



Luke was able to do well competing against most people.  This picture shows the first people he raced against today.  Notice Luke's car is the red one that has already crossed the finish line. 

This picture shows the qualifying heat with the top four cars.  It was a really close race.  Luke's car won by a fraction of a second.

For anyone who might be interested in what a winning Pinewood Derby car looks like, here are the top four cars.

Here are the top 32 cars and their times.

Megan raced too.  She entered the open race where girls and adults could race.  Megan got 9th place.  

Luke plans on being a dentist and recently he decided he wants to get a PHD too.  Whatever he does, this scholarship will come in handy.  I'm so excited that he is able to say he got his first scholarship at 10!  I'm really hoping this helps motivate him to want to get more scholarships.  Luke really loves learning and loves telling people he is going to be a dentist or get a PHD.  He also loves science.  He is our science geek and everyone in his grade knows him by his love for science.  Working on the Pinewood Derby car goes hand in hand with his love of science because Luke had to learn a lot about physics to make a fast car.  It's pretty cool all of the things he learned in creating this car with his dad.  Occasionally I've heard jokes about how the dads do all of the work.  Obviously a lot of that is true because these boys can't use power tools and don't know how to use other tools well.  However, the kids have the opportunity to learn so much too.  In Luke's case, it was a lot more than learning how to cut, sand and paint the car.  There is physics, math, geometry and other things that go into a fast car.   It's been neat watching Luke and his dad together with this.