Worm Races

The 28th annual W.W.O.R.M. for 2022 sped by as we had one of the fastest race time in history! 

For the week of May 16-19, students from Dohron Wilson Elementary School came to the library to see if their worm would be the fastest for their grade level. On Friday, May 20, Miss Caitlin journeyed to the school to discover who had the fastest worm of all. In this final competition, we had:

  • Team 4 from Mrs. Yost's Kindergarten class, who qualified with a time of 21.77 seconds. 
  • Speeders from Mrs. Allen's 1st grade class, who qualified with a time of 29.17 seconds. 
  • Foxy the Pirate from Mrs. Eades' 2nd grade class, who qualified with a time of 29.96 seconds. 
  • Racing Worm form Mr. Eyink's 3rd grade class, who qualified with a time of 19.93 seconds. 
  • The 5th Muska Meme from Mrs. Rockenbaugh's 4th grade class, who qualified with a time of 23.03 seconds. 
  • Speed from Ms. Marsh's 5th grade class, who qualified with a time of 30.15 seconds. 

After two intense rounds of racing, three teams at a time, we had our winner! 

  • 1st place: Speed from Ms. Marsh's class (14.38 sec.)
  • 2nd place: Speeders from Ms. Allen's class (28.93 sec.)
  • 3rd place: Foxy the Pirate from Mrs. Eades' class (35.21 sec.)
  • 4th place: The 5th Muska Meme from Mrs. Rockenbaugh's class (37.21 sec.)
  • 5th place: Team 4 from Ms. Yost's class (38.85 sec.)
  • 6th place: Racing Worm from Mr. Eyink's class (41.27 sec.)

Congratulations Ms. Marsh and Team Speed! 

See you all in 2023!

The Mechanicsburg Public Library has held worm races since 1994 to show how valuable earthworms are to the health of our planet and to promote sportsmanship and for the fun of it.  We emphasize that these seemingly lowliest of creatures do important work and usually goes unnoticed and unappreciated. The idea came from an old “Encyclopedia Brown” story, where the neighborhood boys concocted a worm race to pass the time during a lazy summer day.  We invite youth to write stories about the location of our races:  Wormtown, located in the Village of Mechanicsburg, Ohio.  Teams of humans help individual worms from all over the world prepare for and then race on the tracks at the Mechanicsburg Public Library and the Dohron Wilson Elementary School. The worms depend on the children to create a safe racing environment and all of us depend on worms to take care of our world. We encourage humane treatment of all participants, sportsmanship, and we request all guests and participants respect the racers by not mentioning bait, fishing, or birds.

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