Cardboard sled race in Rochester brings smiles and fun as snow starts to melt
Feb. 27—It may have felt like spring on Saturday but it was all winter as dozens of kids took the hill at the Rochester Golf & Country Club Saturday for the eighth annual GREAT Cardboard Sled Race.
"It's fantastic, with just the nature of things this last year, we had no idea what to expect for turn out," said Jeraka Tweite, Spark, Children's Museum of Rochester's operations and visitor services manager. "It's just great to see people are ready to get out and do things in the community and see the kids happy to participate and happy to have something to do. It's so awesome to be able to give them that outlet."
On Friday afternoon, 6-year-old Brielle and her brother 3-year-old Barrett Colbenson worked with their dad Ben Colbenson to add more colored tape to their cardboard sled outside of their St. Charles home.
Ben said the work on the sled had been ongoing for a few weekends before Saturday's sled race. The style, he said, was based on the classic television program The Red Green Show. The not so handy fictional Red Green's solution to most problems is duct tape.
The vehicle shaped sled was inspired by "my friend's big sister," Brielle said. "She has a Jeep," she said. "And me and Barrett like Jeeps."
No Jeep would be complete without a gas tank and Brielle was eager to show-off the cardboard gas canister they made. After proudly displaying it, she attached it to the back of the sled using "half pieces" of colorful tape handed over by dad.
On Saturday morning, Brielle and Barrett were part of the first sled racing heat. At the last moment, Barrett decided to run down the hill instead of riding with his sister in the sled. Although the sled veered off the race course and came to a stop, the siblings ended up taking multiple runs together down the hill with dad Ben giving them the necessary push.
"Fire it up Barrett," Ben Colbenson said before pushing the sled down the hill.
Like the Colbenson's, it was Spark's Executive Director's first cardboard sled race.
"I love it. It's so much fun and what is the best part for me is all the stuff that happened before the kids got here," Jennifer Staley said. "They spent time with their families creating these cool, what they think are, masterpieces together and had this really cool family experience, especially in a year like this year."
For the Forliti brothers 7-year Connor and 2 1/2 -year-old Easton the race did not go as planned. Their digger inspired sled, named "Boulder Brothers," got stuck on the start and never picked up speed on its way down, despite the repeated attempts of mom Nikki Forliti.
Ski like runners on the bottom of the yellow rectangle cardboard sled didn't give the boys the intended speed. The sled, which also had a cardboard shovel blade on the front, took the brothers "tons of days to make," according to Connor.
"It's fun to do," Connor said, a day before the race. "I like to race the other people."
Staley said it doesn't matter what the sled looks like, whether it's a simple Amazon box or an ear of corn, what matters is that they had a great time and a family experience.
The Ness family traveled from Mantorville to take part in the race. Saturday marked the family's sixth time at the event but it was likely the first time they had ever ridden down a hill in a carboard syringe. Named "The COVID crew," 11-year-old Kenley Ness said her and her 7-year-old sister Emersyn's sled summarized the year.
Khole Tweiter and and her grandfather Billy DuBord spent time over a few weekends building the "Corn Cob Bullet." The ear of corn style sled won its first race with the help of 7-year-old Khole's older brother Kooper Tweite, 15.
Kooper was responsible for pushing the sled off and down the hill and then helping it maintain its momentum down the hill. His strategy?
"Push as hard as I could," he said, "even when she started going backwards."
