"I like watching people crash!”
Adam Kallioinen, 11, a member of Cub Scout Pack 30 based at Trinity Lutheran, got his wish repeatedly at the Third Annual Winter Wonderland event. Held Saturday at the East Silver Lake Park, the event drew 300 Cub Scouts from around the region plus their families.
Hours of snow sculpting, sled racing, sledding, and snowmobile rides kept participants warm all day. New this year were warming fires as well as a dog sled team giving both demonstrations and rides. A lunch of hot dogs, chili and hot cocoa or coffee fueled attendees for hours of fun.
Teams of younger Cub Scouts pitted their homemade cardboard and duct tape sleds against each other. These contraptions, limited only by their creators' imaginations, swooped down the hill in pairs. Ranging from elaborate to minimalist, the cardboard fire engines, rockets, planes, canoes, tanks, Sponge Bob and racecars often spilled riders or careened into each other. Some aerodynamic, weight-balanced vehicles made it to the bottom in style.
"I like sledding, going the fastest,” said Josh Cain, 8, of Pack 134, racing a two-man sled with buddy Wyatt Bigelow.
The ensuing pileups pleased the younger members of the crowd lining the steep hill, including Kallioinen, who was attending his third Winter Wonderland event.
"The first time I did the sled race, I built a pickle,” he said.
His dad, Pete, appreciated the family- and boy-friendly romping opportunities.
"It's great for the kids, gives them something to do in the winter,” he said. "They're sliding down the hill, having a good old time — it's definitely a good way to blow off steam.”
With one son, Daniel, 8, and three older daughters, Cathy Palenkas said both scouting and the Winter Wonderland event fill a need in her family.
"I think it's a great opportunity for boys,” said Palenkas, whose son is a member of Pack 103 based at Mill Creek Elementary School. "It's a great opportunity for him to be a boy and do boy stuff with other boys.”
Older cub scouts, Weebolos, raced one-cub sleds they built on skis, pitting teams two-by-two against each other. A looming outhouse vied with a streamlined rocket design in the final face-off, with the rocket taking first place.
"The challenge for us was deciding what they wanted to do, they voted on it,” said Pete Kallioinen of the pack's outhouse entry, whose rider read the paper during the race. "The parents want to keep it simple. [The kids] had to work on it as a group — great teamwork, a skill they have to have in life.”
Hosted by Pack 87 at Silver Lake Elementary School, the Winter Wonderland tradition has become a January fixture. Lee Cobb, who with other pack fathers launched the festival three years ago, led the all-volunteer event.
"There's not a lot of stuff for Cub Scouts to do in the winter and this kind of fills in,” he said, noting that Boy Scouts have cold-weather group activities but, until the Winter Wonderland, Cub Scouts faced blank months.
"Mark Ewing [senior district executive from the Scenic Trails Council] said this is the biggest all-volunteer run event that the Cub Scouts have in northern Michigan,” he added. "We have 50 volunteers and a thousand plus man hours putting this thing together.”
One challenge is the ever-changing leadership of Cub Scout troops as their boys age and move up the ranks. For a few more years, the Cobb family will provide consistency for both Pack 87 and the annual Winter Wonderland.
"My situation, I have one that just moved into Boy Scouts and one that just started Cub Scouts and another in the middle of Cub Scouts,” said Cobb.