Students race as reward

CENTRAL GLENDALE — Rubyn Nevarez had been excited for weeks about going racing.

In his first year at Tobinworld, a nonprofit school for special needs and autistic children, Rubyn, 10, helped his class make a cardboard car body for the school’s annual Grand Prix competition.

“He was so excited about me coming,” said his mother Tawyna Nevarez, who came to watch the event on Friday.

Rubyn was one of several dozen students of all ages who ran around an outdoor track at the school’s Broadway Boulevard campus. The students donning a variety of eclectic cardboard vehicles ranging from race cars to food trucks.

“Gentleman, start your engines,” Tobinworld assistant principal Chris Lougheed said over the loudspeaker while waving a black-and-white checkered flag to start the first of several races around the outdoor track.

Lougheed provided spirited commentary as the racers made their way around the track as hundreds of their classmates and teachers cheered them on.

School officials said the annual event serves as a great motivational tool for the school’s hundreds of students.

“It’s a big reward for the kids for all their hard work and doing well in school,” said Tobinworld executive director and founder Judy Weber. “They look forward to it all year long.”