3rd Annual K.I. Sawyer Cardboard Sled Races 2022!

Three years ago I started the K.I. Sawyer Community Cardboard Sled Races. The goal was to bring kids and adults together in the community and have fun and show off your cardboard sled making skills and art work. Now 3 years later it still continues to grow. The first year we had less than 100 people and about 20 sleds. The second year we had around 150 people and about 28 sleds. This year we had about 250 people and just over 50 sleds. So it is slowly catching on and growing. Hopefully we have 100 sleds next year.

The idea is simple. You can only use regular cardboard and duct tape. Nothing else. Artwork can be added on top or sides but cannot contribute to functionality.

There are 4 categories, each get 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place trophies:

Kids, adults, teams, and outlaws. We also held a drawing for a new set of snowshoes and poles.

Outlaws are those whose sleds don’t follow the rules and they battle it out for one 1st place trophy.

Then we also have two trophies for Best Crash and Coolest Sled.

This sled won coolest sled this year:

Here is my sled. Of course as event coordinator I don’t count for the prizes:

Each year we have the county plows come clear out the event lot and prep the area. The local snowmobile club brings out a groomer and preps the hill. This year we had a snow storm the night before and despite all the grooming the last 2 days the sledding hill had a fresh 3-4 inches of snow we couldn’t help. But the kids still had fun.

The Gwinn Lions club hosts the event and provided the port-a-johns. Gwinn snowmobile club and county do the prep work for hill. Shannon’s Home Cooking provided food, cocoa, and coffee. Cody Lakenen did the touchup snow prep. Gwinn Baptist church provided a bus for use as a warming station. Rob Crawford provided wood and maintenance for the bonfire. Marcus Koponen towed people & sleds to the top of the hill numerous times using his snowmobile and deer sleds. Should be noted it is actually a tall hill to climb in deep snow. And miscellaneous friends helped manage the event. I myself coordinated the whole event and made sure everything was taken care of. Many people in the community contributed funds to make it all happen.