The SOHO (South of Horton St.) community packed the hill on South Street Sunday for the second annual SOHO Soaper. The Soapbox derby is a throwback to a time of bringing residents and neighbours together. “The big thing that we’re trying to do here is introduce London to SOHO because it’s revitalizing,” said Mark Thomas, chair of the SOHO Community Association. “There’s so much going on here, and it is a great place to grow a family. The other thing we’re trying to get at is kids with their hands on tools and experiment without an app.” Families have been coming together for weeks to get their derby cars ready for the annual race. “Our team’s name is Cobra Chicken and were trying to make a dragster car for the Hot Wheels theme of this year,” said Mason Zimmer, 13, who won his race. “The wheels are a pain to keep straight, but I think we did pretty good.” One of the highlights of the day was the celebrity race, which turned out to be a little controversial. MPP Terence Kernaghan lined up on the right in his Moose-themed car. Coun. David Ferreira was in the middle in his astronaut themed Moon Buggy, and beside him was Coun. Skylar Franke in an LTC bus. From the opening push, Kernaghan veered straight left in front of Ferreira and plowed Franke’s bus off the hill. “Unfortunately, the antlers were not due to standard, and, they did not stay on,” joked Kernaghan. “The LTC makes frequent stops, so I figured it wasn’t going to be a big deal.” Franke was shocked. “The adrenaline was racing, so I thought I got off to a clean push and then all of a sudden I see Terrance coming across,” recounted Franke. “I tried to go left to get out of his way but crashed. Then my pit crew jumped up, we got reset and kept going.” While this was going on, Ferreira cruised down the middle looking like he had an easy victory. “There was a significant accident right at the beginning, and then I was right by myself in the lead,” said Ferreira. “Somehow Skyler just made it up beside me and I have no idea how that happened.” That’s because when Ferreira was cruising down the hill, Franke got a big push from a few helpers. “A lot of people came up and tried to give us all a last push, so I made it over,” laughed Franke. “I beat David, but I don’t know if I was allowed to get all that extra help at the end.” It was all fun, just like the concept of the entire day. Ferreira would like to see more of this around the city. “SOHO is an up-and-coming neighbourhood but what it has never lacked is just the community support and just the neighbors here,” said Ferreira. “Everybody is really engaged and everybody likes to get together. This is something that London needs to do more, so look at what SOHO is doing.”
