Clubhouse

Hemmings joins club on soapbox

The Soap Box Derby coordinated by the Kiwanis Club of Bowling Green, Kentucky, received a major boost this past summer from, of all places, Hemmings Motor News. Though the publication is geared toward the interests of its more than 260,000 readers—most of them car-collecting enthusiasts—the magazine made an exception after the annual event caught the attention of one of its writers.

Racers anxiously await the start of their heat during the Kiwanis Club of Bowling Green, Kentucky’s Soap Box Derby this past July.

“Last year, one of my assignments was to cover the Buick GS Nationals at Beech End Dragway in Bowling Green, Kentucky,” notes Craig Fitzgerald in the July issue of the publication. “I had a few hours to kill before I had to make my way to Nashville to catch a flight, and I’d been intrigued by the All-American Soap Box Derby signs I’d seen scattered all around town.

“I swung by for a couple of hours and I was absolutely blown away by the competitiveness, the professionalism, and the camaraderie of the event.”

That the event would so impress the writer is hardly by accident. Work on the derby—which unfolds each May—begins soon after the national finals each July, with news releases and other promotional tools announcing the date of the upcoming event and calling for entries being distributed in September.

More than 100 competitors vie for awards each year, and the club generates net proceeds of more than $22,000 from entry fees and sponsorships. And the recent exposure won’t hurt.

“Talk about a marketing tool to those with young families,” says Bowling Green Kiwanian Roger LaPointe, one of the event’s organizers.