IT'S SOAP BOX DERBY TIME! GET INVOLVED!

BE THERE! Saturday, March 29, 2008, the "14th Annual Coachella Valley Don Berry Memorial Soap Box Derby" will be run on Avenidas Bermudas in La Quinta, California. From 9am until every entrant has run, late in the afternoon, there will be all the excited thrills and spills which occur in every kind of speed contest, but also a lot more. There will be great amounts of love, enthusiasm, coaching, learning, caring, mentoring and winners and losers ... But truly, no losers at all. All the competing girls and boys, from age 8 through 17, have, along with their adult "partners", built their own Soap Box race cars, made from kits which are shared by every participant, developed new ways to coax more traction and speed from their vehicles, learned about working with sponsors and, especially, the local media, to get the word out about this great annual event. These are great lessons for anyone of any age ... Just imagine if you'd had these kinds of lessons when you were much younger!

And the winners can make it all the way to the this year's "71st Finals" in Akron, Ohio.

This coming July 26, 2008, over 100,000 spectators will gather in Akron for the finals of the "71st All-American Soap Box Derby". Over the decades, the Derby has had its highs and lows, as any large event might, but in the past few years, along with a resurgence in Americans' patriotism, it has re-built itself into a huge, exciting contest not only for boys and girls, but also for their moms and dads, aunts and uncles, granddads and grandmoms, mentors and coaches of all types and kinds.

We'll be there at Avenidas Bermudas on March 29th, cameras and microphones in-hand, interviewing and taping all the kids and their great efforts, along with those of their mentors and sponsors, who are often the most emotional people at the event, based on past experience, for a future  'CAR NUT TV' show, and of course we'll post all the video on this website, too.

Over the years, many people have been great contributors to the Coachella Valley's Derby, including the late US President Gerald R. Ford, who with his wife, Betty, was for many years a local resident, and always a great font of encouragement for the Derby and all its participants and supporters. Don Berry, for whom the local Derby is named, established the event and was a person of non-stop action and enthusiasm, doing everything which needed to be done to guarantee the local Derby would continue on for years, even without him, as it has. Fred Mohler, now a longtime local Coachella Valley resident, was the national winner of the Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio, in 1953, and gives willingly of his time and effort, wherever he might be of the greatest good to encourage his "kids". We do point out, however, that while Mohler was from Muncie, Indiana, the next three finishers that year, 54 years ago, were from Los Angeles, only 100 miles from where our local Derby will be held on March, 29th, in La Quinta.

And we want to encourage all the adults from the Southern California area who visit this website --- more than several hundred a day --- To participate as sponsors and mentors in their own local Soap Box Derby! It's fun, it's a great learning and teaching experience,  and it's a fantastic way for kids and adults together to learn patience and teamwork. And all the local events need sponsors of all kinds, large and small, as you'll read below.

To paraphrase Dragnet's Sgt. Joe Friday, "Here's just the facts":

Race Date: March 29, 2008, 9AM Start - till approximately 4-5PM

Location: Avenida Bermudas in the La Quinta Cove area

Contact information: 760-564-3761; E-mail: [email protected]

Coachella Valley Soap Box Derby Local Website: www.cvsbd.org

Ages: Stock 8-13, Super Stock 10-17

Divisions: Stock & Super Stock (Masters Division to be held in 2009)

Local area for competitors: All of Riverside & Imperial Counties (and portions of San Bernardino, i.e. 29 Palms)

Cost of New Car: Approximately $700

We are always looking for sponsors to help with the costs to send the winners back to Akron. 

Anyone interested in a sponsorship, please call 760-564-3761.  We can get your names in the event program for this year's event if you contact the Derby by March 25th.

Click below to read more for the sponsor and contact information ... Maybe you can help out! Maybe you should help out! What if someone had helped you when you read about the Soap Box Derby as a kid ... maybe you dreamed about participating ... but for whatever reasons, you couldn't ... Maybe that was because that someone who could have helped you never called when they should have ... So NOW is YOUR chance to help! It'll be fun! You'll LOVE it ... So DO it!

To: Our Potential (and Future) Sponsors:

What do over 550 kids from throughout the area 80 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, known as the  Inland Empire, have in common in the City of La Quinta?  They have all participated in the Greater Coachella Valley Soap Box Derby over the last 14 years. Kids that raced years ago are now coming back and volunteering to help on Race Day.  We would like you to join us in the excitement of downhill gravity racing --- Which is unlike anything that you have ever seen!

We know that you want to participate and YOU CAN HELP!   We are looking for Event Sponsors ($5,000.00), Event Co-Sponsors ($1,000.00), Car Sponsors ($700.00), and Individual Sponsors ($600-$700).  The City of La Quinta has been our Founding Race Sponsor since our beginning. 

What do you get for your Sponsorships? 

Event Sponsors receive special recognition at all Derby Events throughout the year, Signage on Race Day, recognized in all Press Releases, included in Soap Box Derby literature, Website postings and Post Race information about the winners of our two races.

Event Co-Sponsors get special recognition on Race Day, are recognized in all press releases and local Soap Box Derby literature as well as posting on our Website. (Photo - "Back in the day", the kits are assembled for shipment to kids all over the country who had sponsors which allowed them to participate in the Derby).

Car Sponsor: Your name or business will be located on the car you sponsor. You can choose the person who races your sponsored car.  Cars can race year after year until they win the “Local” and go back to Akron, Ohio, for the finals, the "All-American Soap Box Derby".

Individual Sponsors get recognition in the Program.  This level is for those who want to support the program to help with costs to run our “local” Soap Box Derby.  Those expenses include: Trophies, T-shirts, parts, sending the cars and winners back to Akron, Ohio, for the "All-American Soap Box Derby", and more.

The Greater Coachella Valley Soap Box Derby will be held this year on Saturday, March 29, 2008.  Come join us in making dreams come true for two young boys or girls, or one of each, who will be sent to Akron in July of this year for the All American Soap Box Derby race finals.  That’s right, each of our winners will go on to compete in the 71 year old race in Akron, Ohio on July 26, 2008. BUT THEY NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO BE ABLE TO DO SO!

The “Local” Soap Box Derby is a program of the Coachella Valley Recreation & Park District,  and the Boys & Girls Club of the Coachella Valley.  Please contact us immediately, using the contact information below, or through e-mail to Steve Parker through this website, so that we can include YOU in our press releases as well as ALL our literature for the coming year!

14th Annual Don Berry Memorial Coachella Valley Soap Box Derby

Lucia Moran, Race Director for the Coachella Valley Soap Box Derby
(760) 564-3761 Home/Office
(760) 805-1603 Cell
(760) 564-8350 Fax
E-mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]