Northern Maine soap box derby race in Houlton ME, our real estate blog postings.
Not just about 3 bedroom ranches, 40 acre woodlots or lakefront vacation homes. When you live in a small Maine town, local involvement is fun and rewarding. You work as a community member on lots of local events in small town Maine. But the involvement in many start with your own kids being in them indoctrination.
This blog post is about the Northern Maine soap box derby race in Houlton ME.
The Maine soap box derby race started back in 1995, the first race after a long hiatus.
The original national down hill All American soap box race out in Akron Ohio kicked off back in 1934.
Maine soap box derby races in Bangor, Portland Maine meant traveling for anyone else not living in one of Maine’s handful of cities.
Camden Maine was the site for the 1995 soap box derby race and was underwritten by the credit card giant MBNA.
MBNA put up $20,000 and invited New Hampshire Soap Box Derby race committee members to oversee the event. The next year, five local races around Maine spawned from that Camden inaugural race. The Maine soap box derby locals were in Brewer, Camden, Houlton, Rumford, and South Portland,
The Northern Maine Soap Box Derby Race ended up being the largest in the nation five years running beginning in 1997.
Sending a stock, superstock soap box derby winner to represent Northern Maine in the big Akron, Ohio All American Soap Box Derby race.
Today Houlton Maine is the statewide lone venue for down hill gravity powered soap box derby racing.
How come only one soap box derby local is alive and running in Maine? Aging committee members and the fact a specially engineer hill was created called “Derby Hill”. The over 900′ foot long two lane hill came about from lots of local fund raising. So so many local contributors to the “aid to construction” donations of materials and labor.
The early Houlton Maine soap box derby races were on Drake’s Hill for the first two years.
The time, expense to put up and tear down a closed off public highway is a lot of work. That takes away from energy that should be plowed into the registration, sponsorship fund raising and other aspects of the Maine soap box derby program. The derby race set up and tear down is the quickest way to kill a local running of soap box no matter where you live.
The best way to tell you about the soap box derby race in Houlton Maine is to show you by use of video. Here are a couple videos to demonstrate how it works.
Derby kit cars are purchased by the driver or through a business sponsorship.
My favorite derby cars are the one where the driver beat the pavement, knocked on doors. The boy or girl derby driver earned their ride down Derby Hill in Houlton Maine. Just last NASCAR with decals of lots of sponsors shows this driver will stick with it and become a challenging racer.
Good sportsmanship is important and after every “heat” each derby racer shakes hands win or lose.
Safety tops everything in a well run soap box derby race program. Drivers 7 to 18 years of age can learn the “Thrill of the Hill”. Why wait until a kid is sixteen to drive a car is the approach to this gravity racing program in self built derby cars right?
Soap box derby race runs are decided by thousandths of a second recorded by the electric eye at the finish line.
Northern Maine soap box derby race date for 2022 is June 11th.
My real job is listing, marketing, selling Maine real estate. But one of the volunteer events I enjoy the most in my community of Houlton Maine is the soap box derby program. More on the Northern Maine soap box derby racing program.
Soap box derby racing is something the entire family can be part of with everyone holding down an important role.
I had a trailer to house the cars, tools, spare parts for four derby race cars. As it ended up, two girls, two boys all raced. Two of them made it to the top to represent the town of Houlton Maine, the north half of the state out at the big All American Soap Box Derby Race in Akron Ohio.
Thank you for following our Maine real estate blog posts and the local community events are important to cover.
It’s not just the property listings, helping out in the process to buy and sell Maine real estate.
What is it like where the agent or broker lives, works and plays is huge to share too. Especially for someone out in the real estate audience wanting to learn about the community first. Long before moving on to what’s for sale in a a price I can afford for a Houlton Maine property listing.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA
