Local scouts brave the cold for annual Klondike Derby

Jan. 21—On Saturday, hundreds of Frederick County children got to shoot bows and arrows on Mt. Fuji, search for gold in Antarctica and have a sled race in Alaska.

And they didn't even have to travel too much, since it was all hosted in the Walkersville watershed.

Boy Scout Troop 628, from New Market, hosted its 8th Annual Klondike Derby for youth scouts. The event tests the scouting skills of troops from around the county — like knot-tying and fire-building — and it teaches them lessons about teamwork and camaraderie, said Joey Romagnoli, a chief organizer and assistant scoutmaster for the event.

"The idea is that they're learning stuff they can't learn in school," he said.

The troops create teams and are assigned a name. Each team has a sled that they pull from station to station, completing challenges at each one. Each station is set in a different location around the world.

Points are accumulated, and the team with the most points wins.

The derby is a sort of right of passage for Cub Scouts before they become fully fledged Boy Scouts, Romagnoli said.

The boys from Troop 1023, dubbed Wasabi Wabbits, had to put their knot tying skills to the test to hoist one log over another. They made a point to mention that they did not pick their team name.

The log event was one of their least favorites, they said. They were more fond of the "dangerous events," like throwing knives or tomahawks.

Still, the derby as a whole was a lot of fun, they said.

"We've got some new friends and lots of new skills," Seth Ulanow said.

Meanwhile, Troop 628 had just finished the "caribou kill" station in Siberia. They'd used slingshots to launch rocks at a giant board with a caribou depicted on it.

The boys were laughing about an earlier station — the salmon fishing station, set in Ketchikan, Alaska — where they had chanted "jish" to encourage their troop mates to catch fake fish made with jean material.

The biggest event of the whole derby is the sled race. A timed event, troops line up and must run a course with their sleds in tow. Many of the scoutmasters said getting all of the kids lined up and ready to race was like "herding cats."

Naturally, without snow, the race is slightly harder. Some groups get creative and put wheels on their sleds. One troop shot from the starting line so fast that they created sparks on the rocky trail.

Parker Spinosa, from Troop 628, advised that putting butter on the sled is the best strategy for a snow-free race.

Chris Csajko, another assistant scoutmaster and an art teacher at Deer Crossing Elementary School in New Market, said he's seen kids lose some interpersonal skills over the course of the pandemic.

At the derby, scouts are put into situations where they have to communicate with their team to accomplish something, he said, teaching them "perseverance through conflict."

Plus, the children lead the events, so they hone their leadership skills, he said.

But a secret at the derby, scoutmaster Tom Holt said, is that the adults might enjoy it even more than the kids.

"We're just making sure they are having fun and being safe," he said.