Event is free, just bring your own car and helmet
By Barb Pert Templeton
Growing up in Marine City and enjoying the annual Maritime Days Festival brought Melisa Blanchard lots of special memories over the years, many that she still holds in her heart today.
When she heard a new group of volunteers was trying to revamp the popular festival, she not only jumped on board but she recruited her family and her employer to take part too.
As the office manager at Foam All, a spray and insulation company in Marine City, Blanchard asked the owners to be a festival sponsor but that wasn’t all she asked.
“I didn’t want to just give them a check I wanted to do an event too,” Blanchard said, noting that the owners were all for it.
Now the company has purchased a pair of brand-new electric vehicles that will be given away to the winners of two heats for the Kids Electric Demo Derby. The free event, that simply asks kids ages 3 to 10 to show up downtown with their electric vehicles and a helmet, will be run by the Blanchard family. Melisa and her husband, Bob, and their two children will be registering participants, tying balloons on the back of vehicles and running the actual event on Saturday, Aug. 3 at 4:00 p.m.
All the information about the event is being shared via this flyer for Maritime Days.
Melisa Blanchard said the demo derby was a very popular draw at the festival over the years but organizers dropped it from the schedule in 2018. When she began volunteering last year they decided to bring the contest back to Maritime Days.
The event is organized in two parts with children ages 3 to 5 competing and then a second contest for children ages 6 to 10. The basic premise is for each young driver to try and keep the balloon, tied on the back of their vehicle, in tact and unbroken.
“We line them up and they go out there and they bump into each other trying to pop the balloons,” Melisa Blanchard said. “They can’t use their hands and their feet must stay inside the vehicle at all times.”
The child with the last balloon still inflated on their vehicle at the end of the competition will win the new electric vehicle.
The skill level of the drivers varies, with the youngers ones usually less aggressive about breaking the balloons but it’s always fun to watch, Melisa Blanchard said.
The event did have a larger following in the past and the turnout was small last year, four drivers for each age bracket, but Melisa Blanchard is hopeful that more kids will come out and enjoy the fun this year.
“We do it in the middle of the X games, right after they practice and before their show, so there’s a big crowd there,” she said. “And this is nice because it holds the people there and provides a little more excitement and it gives the kids something to do.”
A few basic rules call for the electric vehicle to be a ride-in not sit-on unit, no four-wheelers or motorcycle type vehicles are allowed. The vehicle cannot be altered, for example a unit with a lawnmower motor installed to make it go faster is against the rules.
“It has to have the original equipment, it can’t be souped-up,” Melisa Blanchard said.
Registration on site begins at 4 p.m.
For more information visit maritimedays.net or the Facebook Page Marine City Maritime Days.
