by Cori Hilsgen
news@thenewsleaders.com
Local student Devan Meyer, and his teammate Conor Bahl, won first place at the NitroX Camp monster-truck race held at the St. Cloud Technical and Community College this summer.
The week-long summer camp taught participants how to build, design, paint, test drive and race remote-controlled, gas-powered cars and trucks.
“I wanted to do the camp because you could build your own trucks (and) that interested me,” Meyer said.
Meyer and Bahl designed and painted remote-controlled monster-truck bodies for the race. They were able to keep the body of their trucks when the camp was finished.
Meyer named his truck Ghostrider.
“The thing I liked most about the camp was we could design our own trucks, the colors and what they would look like,” Meyer said. “I would like to go back next summer. The kids there were nice and I made a couple friends.”
Meyer, who is the son of Lisa and Rick Meyer, is in sixth grade at Kennedy Community School. He has one sister, Stella. Meyer’s grandparents, Chickie and Maynard Meyer, also live by St. Joseph. Meyer’s mother, Lisa, said the camp was great.
“They went on field trips to Miller Auto and Freightliner and got to learn and experience a lot of real-life opportunities in transportation,” Lisa said. “They also got to do things like welding, painting, deploying an air bag. (They) learned about engines hands-on, drove the remote-controlled trucks and rode in a semi-truck.”
Meyer has a bulldog named JoJo, a hamster and a beta fish.
Besides learning about cars, he enjoys reading, participating in Boy Scouts, playing baseball, Legos, science fiction shows, fishing with his grandpas, video games like Minecraft and hanging out with his friends.
Meyer is also a Dr. Who (a science fiction show) and Harry Potter fan. This summer he and his family went on a trip and Meyer got to visit the place where they filmed both shows, which he said was “really awesome.”
His favorite subjects in school are science, math and Chinese.
Bahl is a seventh-grade student at Kennedy.
Sixteen children participated in the camp which was open to both boys and girls.
The camp is part of a pilot program aimed at helping participants better understand the transportation industry. Organizers hope to expand the program statewide, to help fill a shortage of workers in the industry by getting children interested at a young age.
Conor Bahl (front, left), team leader Larry Gordon, and other participants watch as Devan Meyer (front, right) gets ready to race his monster truck.
Conor Bahl (left) and Devan Meyer won first place in the two heats they competed in with their trucks at the NitroX Camp monster-truck race held this summer at St. Cloud Technical and Community College. Other camp participants are shown standing behind them while Meyer holds the trophy they received.
Devan Meyer named his monster truck Ghostrider.
Some participants from the NitroX camp hold the vehicles they designed during the week-long camp.
