Scouts from Canada play with Hot Wheels

Scouts Canada is more than 100 years old, but is still playing with toy cars. As an old saying goes, ‘never lose the child within you’. The National Scout Organisation has teamed with ‘Hot Wheels’ on a two-year partnership that will see the Mattel brand play a prominent role in the organisation of the popular ‘Kub Kars’ and ‘Beaver Buggies’ programmes.

Scouts from Canada play with Hot Wheels

Scouts Canada is more than 100 years old, but is still playing with toy cars. As an old saying goes, ‘never lose the child within you’. The National Scout Organisation has teamed with ‘Hot Wheels’ on a two-year partnership that will see the Mattel brand play a prominent role in the organisation of the popular ‘Kub Kars’ and ‘Beaver Buggies’ programmes.

Introduced in 1978, ‘Kub Kars’ is designed to foster creativity and active play by having Cub Scouts (aged 8-10) design, build and race a model car at rally events in their communities. The Beavers Buggies program caters to younger boys. “What we’re hoping to do through this partnership is better support those programs, and increase the visibility of Scouting to a much broader community,” said Steve Kent, Chief Commissioner of Scouts Canada and chair of the board of governors for Scouts Canada in Mount Pearl. Hot Wheels, he added, will provide tools and resources that will make it easier for Scouts Canada’s 24,000 volunteers to organise the ‘Kub Kars’ and ‘Beaver Buggies’ programmes.

The partnership includes organising contests and providing the winning prizes for Scouts Canada members, and the creation of a “Hot Wheels Kub Kar Rally Kit” consisting of giveaways and promotional material. It will also include downloadable resource materials such as posters, building and decorating tips, and thank you certificates. Hot Wheels will also promote Scouts Canada through its website. “It really is a win-win partnership where we’re promoting two brands that have been synonymous with growing up in this country for many years,” said Kent. Kent characterized the involvement with corporate sponsors as a “fairly new area” for the organisation, undertaken as part of an ongoing “revitalization process” called “Scouting Now: An Action Plan for Canadian Scouting” developed in 2009. “We were very much aware of the need to look at our image and profile and figure out how we could really improve upon it and better connect with Canadian families and children and youth,” said Kent.

Membership in Scouts Canada had been declining steadily since hitting a peak of 320,000 in 1965. However the organisation has seen its membership increase for three straight years – a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since the mid-1970s – and now boasts just over 100,000 members. The goal, said Kent, is for Scouts Canada to be bigger than ever by 2020. “We have ambitious growth goals and to reach them means renewing some of our traditional partnerships (service clubs, schools, church groups), but it also means building new relationships with corporate and government partners,” said Kent.