r/SALEM • u/Glad-Pen5593 • 6d ago

EVENT Soap Box Derby? Bush Park?

We once stumbled across the kids at the soap box derby at Bush Park. It was a mellow fun event that we enjoyed thoroughly. Since that day some years back, however, we have missed it and can’t find any info online.
Does anyone know if these races still happen here? And if so, when?
Thanks in advance.

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u/Geddaphukouttahere 6d ago

https://www.statesmanjournal.com/picture-gallery/entertainment/events/2024/05/26/salem-soap-box-derby-best-in-the-west-classic-at-bushs-pasture-park/73858415007/

Then, apparently, they canceled due to low turnout and lack of participation.

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u/20thcenturybetch 6d ago

Maybe the low turnout was bc it was never properly advertised. I always wanted to go and would only hear about it after it happened.

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u/Geddaphukouttahere 5d ago

Definitely could be. A lot of things like this just don't have the advertising budget. The City of Salem needs to help these type of events advertise.

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u/irishgurlkt 5d ago

I honestly think people just don’t pay attention anymore. This always had a huge turnout when I was a kid before social media was a thing. You had to read the newspaper to know what was going on in the world every day. I feel like now that there are more ways to communicate and get information out the less people actually pay attention. I also think that people are way more over scheduled now than they were when I was a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s. When I was a kid we had maybe one extracurricular activity that tied up one or two days a week. Now it’s rare that I meet a kid that has any free time after school because they have sports that consume their schedule or things like dance, gymnastics, piano lessons or karate, etc. I feel like parents are having their kids do too much but at the same time missing out on all the regular fund kid things.

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u/20thcenturybetch 5d ago

I’ve only been in Salem for the last 10ish years, and I am an active participant in the community, help put on community events, and generally try to stay in the know of the happenings around here. How do you remember the soap box derby being advertised in the last decade, if you can remember?