Cub scouts test their bridge-building abilities

Woodbury — The Webelos from Cub Scout Pack 148 of Woodbury demonstrated their engineering skills at the monthly pack meeting on Friday, Feb. 24. Each scout had 100 popsicle sticks, a bottle of Elmer’s white glue, and general guidelines to design and build a bridge with a 16-inch span. The scouts tested their bridges by stacking bricks on them, to see how much they could hold. The Webelos, who are in the fourth and fifth grades, built the bridges to satisfy their requirements for the Engineer Activity Badge. No two bridges were alike. Each bridge was put through the process of twisting, creaking, flexing and then exploding. Brian Buttner was doing well, when his bridge took on 171 pounds, eclipsing last year’s record by nearly 50 pounds. However, Matthew Fabbro was able to stack 184 pounds onto his bridge, for about 20 seconds, before it collapsed.