Toy car racing at McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes; Customers invited to Sunday races at Crystal Lake store – Shaw Local

Shoppers in McHenry want something to do with their kids, so the owners of Marvin’s Toy Store offered parents and children the store’s first-ever car races at their McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes store on Saturday.

“McHenry is very family-oriented,” said co-owner Kate McConville. “They’re looking for activities they can do together, and the Chamber of Commerce and the city have listened. Our next step is to have more kid-friendly offerings.”

Kate McConville, who co-owns the store with her mother, Lori McConville, invited families to the small McHenry store on Saturday and the Crystal Lake store on Sunday after seeing a toy car company’s booth at a trade show earlier this year. The company offers inexpensive wooden cars and a race track that stores can rent for a weekend and then ship to their next destination.

Kate McConville teamed up with some other small shop owners to make the event a little bigger. Bumble Bread Co. gave away one of their cookies to each child who bought a car to build, decorate and race, and The Pieceful Project sponsored the two grand prizes, which included Lego car sets. Each child who bought a race car kit for $15 received a ticket for the two grand prize drawings.

The cars are made by wooden toy manufacturer Candylab and consist of three parts. The base and cabin section are made of wood and the wheels are mounted on die-cast metal. The three parts are connected together by a wooden dowel using an Allen key.

Once the cars are assembled, it’s time to decorate. The designs for Kelly Clementi’s sons Nolan (5) and Levi (3) were chosen on Friday evening. Levi wanted his car in egg blue, like Chick Hicks from Disney’s film “Cars”. Nolan wanted his car in Lightning McQueen red with a lightning bolt.

“They were always talking about what their cars should be like.”

But there was no argument about who should be the hero car. Levi, said Clementi with a laugh, likes the villains and chose Chick Hicks himself.

The event is a great opportunity for children to learn and show their own personalities, said Lori McConville.

“I find the incubator concept fascinating, the opportunity for businesses to try out their ideas.”

— Ryan Deering, resident of Crystal Lake

Lori McConville, a former kindergarten teacher, said she sees what children learn as they put the toys together, such as fine motor skills, problem solving, following steps to the end result and teamwork.

She also sees parents learning about their children. “They get frustrated and the parents notice. The kids give them hints when they’re ready for them to help them,” Lori McConville said.

While the weekend events at the two stores are good for business, the McConvilles are still figuring out how their store and business model will fit in McHenry, so the duo, who have owned a toy store at 64 N. Williams St. in Crystal Lake for more than 11 years, applied for one of the 10 small stores last year.

McHenry’s small shops are designed as retail incubators, offering entrepreneurs with ideas cheap rent and time to figure out what they need and what customers want before opening their own stores. But the McConvilles in Crystal Lake already have that.

The leadership of the McHenry Chamber of Commerce suggested they apply, Kate McConville said. “We were ready to look at other markets and we wanted to try our business and its business model in McHenry.”

During the Riverwalk Shoppes season, from May 1 to the end of December, “we can decide if (McHenry) is a good fit,” Kate McConville said.

Saturday’s car races drew Ryan Deering, his two children, a nephew and his brother and sister-in-law to the Riverwalk Shoppes. The children decorated cars and drove them down the ramp while Deering learned more about the shops. The Crystal Lake resident said he wishes his town would do something similar.

“I find the incubator concept fascinating, the opportunity for businesses to try out their ideas,” said Deering.