Never Stop Running

In honor of Memorial Day, this week’s #TBT (Trophy Back Thursday) highlights a special custom award we made for a member of the US Army.

Back in April, Captain Dwight Howell of the US Army Corps of Engineers came to us with a custom request. He liked our Golden Shoe Award Plaque but wanted to know if we could make one with his own shoe. Of course we could!

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The custom shoe was that of Major Phillip Denker, a fellow member of the US Army assigned to the St. Paul District, US Army Corps of Engineers. Major Denker is getting ready to move to another unit, so Captain Howell and his unit wanted to present him with a parting gift.

Captain Howell shipped the sneakers to us at Far Out Awards so we could finish the shoe in gold and create his custom plaque. As you can tell from the first shot during production (below), Major Denker’s shoe was a bit too large for our standard golden shoe plaque, so we also had to customize by ordering a larger plaque to accommodate his shoe!

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In the end, it came out perfect. Captain Howell and his unit presented the custom plaque to Major Denker on May 25th as one his farewell gifts and were generous enough to share this photo with us:

custom gold shoe

The custom inscription reads:

MAJ Phillip Denker

January 2014 – June 2016

Thank you for your unwavering support and enthusiasm. Your dedication has contributed to mission accomplishment and your coordination of events have directly increased morale. Best of luck and never stop running.

“Essayons”


Far Out Awards donates monthly to Puppies Behind Bars, a non-profit organization that trains inmates to raise dogs for wounded war veterans and explosive-detection canines for law enforcement. We encourage our Far Out Awards family to help by sharing pictures and stories of their awards. For every blog post we write based off the photos you share, an extra contribution is made to Puppies Behind Bars (PBB).

PPB

As you can imagine, sharing this specific blog post and donating to PBB on behalf of a custom award made for one of our US Army members is especially meaningful to us. We can’t explain how thankful we are for those who protect and serve our country.

A special thank you to Captain Howell, Major Denker, and all the other members of the St. Paul District, US Army Corps of Engineers for your service and for sharing your story with us. We are sure wherever Major Denker is off to next, he will continue to do great things. Never stop running!