Taking time to make wooden cars

Six-year-old Zoe Maalouf of Minden built a wooden car at the Home Depot off Jacks Valley Road on Saturday. It was her first time at the store's monthly Kids Clinic.

"I don't go here much, because I'm really busy," she said.

Pounding an axle into a car nearby were her mother, Hillary, and sister Isabelle, 3. Little Camille, 1, watched from the cart as boys raced cars along stacks of lumber.

"I came up with a name for this one," said 8-year-old Nick Kever, taking a break from the race. He built three cars. The first one he named Motor Boy Car.

"I'm planning to paint this one orange on top, green on the bottom and the wheels are just going to be black."

His second car was named Motor Car Girl. He was still thinking of a name for the third.

Projects offered during the free workshops vary from month to month. The project for April will be a bird house with a window and a peg for the residents to perch on. Coming in May is a planter box.

"The goal is to get younger children into it for when they get older," explained Home Depot Lumber Associate Daleen Marlow. In the past they've done book ends and tool boxes, she said.

"For Valentine's Day last month we did heart-shaped foot stools."

Held the first Saturday each month from 9 a.m. until noon, the workshops give kids something to do while their parents shop.

"Unless there's too many kids for us to handle - then it's better if the parents stay and help," said the store's sign maker, Andrea Whitmore. "It just depends if we have enough hands to help them all."

She said the Kids Clinics have been offered at Home Depots across the nation for six years. The store offers kits and all the tools required free of charge. Kids get orange aprons they can wear again and again and an achievement pin for each project they complete.

Some families come every month.

"I definitely have some regulars," Whitmore said.

Jack Krause brought his son, John, for the first time.

"I think we might start doing it," dad said. "It's a great thing for the kids."

The elder Krause was helping Nick Kever pound in another axle while John watched.

"Just a little more. Tell him when you think it's there, John."

"Almost. A little more. There," John said.

Kever, a second grader at Jacks Valley Elementary School, finally decided on a name for his third car.

"It's called Roller Racer," he said.

The next Home Depot Kids Clinic will be held from 9 a.m. until noon April 3.

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.