More than 200 scouts and their parents cascaded in a fury of excitement at the Penta Career Center Saturday for the Cub Scout 32nd annual Construction City event, hosted by the Erie Shores Council of Boy Scouts of America.
“It's called more like organized chaos,” said Matt Pero, the Webelo den leader for Cub Scout Pack 199. “But it's a lot of fun.”
Each pack was tasked with one of two construction projects. Either to build a load-bearing bridge or to create a particular facet of a city.
“This particular event is only open to the fourth and fifth graders,” said Chuck Walker, the director of support service for Boy Scouts of America Erie Shores Council.
The 9 to 11-year-olds involved in creating load-bearing bridges thought up the plans, got them approved, and then pivoted as was necessary to complete their objectives.
“It's got to meet certain specifications for length and width and structural components,” Mr. Walker said. “They can only use the materials provided, other than some decorative things.”
Certain troops used Star Wars toys to decorate their bridge, having an AT-AT walk over their design, while others used classic toy cars.
Using cardboard and tape, the scouts were tasked with creating something that could hold weight, Mr. Pero said.
“We had a couple of little planning meetings in our den groups...we designed our bridge, got it authorized...And then once the building happened, the plans kind of changed along the way,” he said.
Strong shapes like triangles were one of the more important innovations the scouts learned in real-time, “turning that piece of cardboard into some shape that actually will make the supporting weight more effective,” Mr. Pero said.
Then after about two and a half hours of build time, the bridges were tested on a load-bearing machine.
Joseph Carter, a volunteer for the day, ran the machine, nicknamed “The Bridge Destroyer,” and calculated the load-to-weight ratio for each bridge.
For the last six years, Mr. Carter has helped with the Construction City event.
“It’s always fun looking at what they design every year,” he said.
The bridge that Monclova Cub Scout Pack 205 built bore the most weight, holding 803 lbs, and weighing in at 209 lbs for a load weight ratio of 3.8, according to Mr. Carter.
“The whole time, they thought they would be winning the thing,” Matt Long, the den leader for Cub Scout Pack 149, said. “They thought there was no way they [the machine] could destroy it.”
Overall Mr. Long said the day was really about exposing the kids to engineering principles
“It was kinda like all over the place at the start,” Michael Long, 10, Mr. Long’s son, said. “Building was a good opportunity for community.”
And building of a completely different sort was happening a few doors down in the Penta Career Center gymnasium, where kids of a larger range of ages were hard at work constructing a city with a tank, a castle, a lighthouse, and even a pizzeria.
“We made ourselves a basketball stadium and a connected community center slash arcade slash pizzeria,” Holly Brine, a cub scout parent, said.
An old-fashioned arcade game made out of cardboard sat next to a cardboard oven and cardboard circles colored like pizzas.
“I helped make some of the some of the stands in the stadium and make some of the pizzas,” Jack Brine, 11, Mrs. Brine’s son, said.
Everywhere kids were hustling to get the last details done on their constructions before the judging.
“With this event, I mean the older Webelos get to do the bridges,” Mr. Pero said. “And the younger Webelos get to build the cities.”
Then quicker than a blink, the kids tore their whole experiment down and filed in for an awards ceremony with raffle prizes and copious amounts of awards for design, creativity and more.
The only thing more fun than building the city and bridges for the kids was tearing everything down.
Scout Pack 263 organized their efforts like a break room, jumping, tearing, and ripping their morning creation apart with glee.
“This event is one of the best, in my opinion,” Mr. Pero said.
First Published November 18, 2023, 11:09 p.m.
