Local soap box -- and orange crate -- derbies are strengthening this summer while Easton's looks to next year.
For the first time since 1996, Kent Finkbeiner didn’t spend his Father’s Day on Northampton Street.
That's because the annual Lehigh Valley Soap Box Derby’s run has ended after 17 years in Easton. Finkbeiner, the derby’s local director, said the organization failed to pique public interest.
“It has been declining over years for one reason or another,” he said. “There’s a lot more for kids to do now, it’s difficult to get families to buy car kits, kids who have done it have aged out and are out of the sport and it’s hard to get new people interested.”
Finkbeiner also said that he received no response from any local businesses looking to make contributions or get involved with the derby.
“What happens in a lot of race cities is business organizations get together to buy a kit and hire a racer,” he said. “If individual businesses were to sponsor a car, it’d become advertisement for them.”
“The bottom line is that we need more entries and we need more local businesses,” Finkbeiner said.
Still rolling
While Finkbeiner remains hopeful that young families and organizations will step up to help revamp the Father’s Day tradition, a few nearby communities are continuing their own annual derby races and another made its debut.
KidsPeace ran its inaugural soap box derby last week in North Whitehall Township after rain washed out last year’s attempt, according spokeswoman Bevin Theodore. KidsPeace, a nonprofit charity that focuses on the behavioral and mental health needs of children, partnered with Brown Daub Kia, which donated $1,500 toward the event at KidsPeace's Orchard Hill campus.
The racers were children from the campus who were treated to prizes and a cookout, Theodore said. Children were also allowed to build their own carts for the event that only had to meet standards for safety, a practice that the High Bridge derby has made a tradition.
High Bridge held its sixth annual derby Saturday in a fashion that High Bridge Events Committee member Jamie Taylor calls “like a ‘Little Rascals’ race.”
Taylor said the format of the carts children use “doesn’t matter as long as it has four wheels, a steering mechanism and a braking mechanism.”
The combined weight for the cart and racer couldn't exceed 220 pounds, but the event does not otherwise follow the standards of the All-American Soap Box Derby league, the official standards that Finkbeiner had always applied for his race in Easton.
Taylor said that the objective of High Bridge’s event isn't to continue a tradition, but to build on it.
“I’m sure we’re always going to try to do something new,” she said. “This year we’re adding face painting, a Rita’s ice stand whose proceeds will go to local charity and we’re working on creating an adult derby race.”
The High Bridge derby commonly attracts more than 20 racers, and its ability to draw local businesses and a horde of volunteers can draw a comparison to Warren County’s longest-running derby event.
Family fun
Washington Celebrates America is a donation-funded daylong celebration of the Fourth of July that is headlined by fireworks, the town parade, musical performances and the Orange Crate Derby.
“It is not a soap box derby,” organizer Ralph Banghardt said. “It’s been called Orange Crate since it first started in the '30s and we’ve just called it that ever since.”
According to Banghardt, who has been organizing the derby since 1977, the race is so popular and contested in Washington that it requires two days of heats to determine a winner.
“We have a qualifier day where if we have more than 20 crates, we have to narrow it down before July 4,” he said. “There’s a junior division for ages 7 to 10 and a senior division for ages 11 to 14. If someone wins four qualifying races, they move on. Even if a kid doesn’t have a fast crate, they still get to race seven or eight times.”
Despite the large field of competitors that once peaked at 38 drivers, Washington Celebrates America Chairman Richard Maguire said the late morning race is just another part of the day’s festivities.
“It was kind of its own entity for many years, but folded into the celebration sometime in the '80s,” he said. “It is our kickoff.”
“We encourage families to build carts together because it’s a family event,” Banghardt added. “Local businesses contribute, so all the kids get something.”
While KidsPeace hopes to stay as fun and self-sufficient as the High Bridge and Washington events, Easton’s Finkbeiner will continue to search the area for the helping hands needed to make a soap box derby go.
Banghardt has advice for him.
“I don’t think it really plays into business too much; it’s more about the families,” he said. “What makes everything work is a nice day.”