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!

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!

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:

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).

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!

This year's categories for the Zonie Awards were:

• Top Whole Pizza Sales
• Top Grill Sales
• Top Fresh Food Sales
• Top Alcohol Sales
• Top Fresh Bakery Sales
• Top Cold Beverage Sales
• Top Hot Beverage Sales
• Top Non-Alcohol Sales
• Top Private Brands Take Rate
• Total Merchandise Sales (% increase)
• Community Involvement Champion
• Top Recognition Program Champion
• Total Gross Profit % Improvement
• Highest Average Transaction % Increase
• Top Guest Count % Growth
• Top Controllable Earnings % Growth

For the food and beverage awards, we used some of our famous food and drink awards, and created some custom especially for 7-Eleven.

Top Whole Pizza Sales took home the Pepperoni Pizza Trophy

Top Grill Sales took home our classic Hot Dog Trophy

For Top Fresh Food Sales we created a custom award to replicate 7-Eleven's NEW Chicken Sandwich

For Top Alcohol Sales we created another custom award featuring a Bud Lite can (their best seller) overflowing with beer

Top Fresh Bakery Sales took home our Glazed Donut Trophy

For Top Cold Beverage Sales we made a custom Slurpee trophy 

For Top Hot Beverage Sales we made a custom coffee trophy in 7-Eleven's coffee cup

For Top Non-Alcohol Sales we made a custom water bottle award in the 7-Select water bottle

For Top Private Brands Take Rate we made a custom award incorporating the 7-Select ice cream. For those of you who don't know, 7-Select is 7-Eleven exclusive brand and the products, like this banana cream pie ice cream, are delicious!

For the rest of the awards we made custom acrylic pieces. You can see the concepts we created below: 

The Florida Zone Administrator from 7-Eleven was nice enough to share some pictures from the award presentation with us.

As you can tell from these smiling faces, the event (and awards) were a huge hit! We just love companies that reward the people behind their brand success. Events like the Zonie Awards really make franchisees and employees feel valued and foster continued growth and success.

If you are looking for some custom awards for your company or personal event, contact us and let us help you spread the love and appreciation with Far Out Awards!

A couple of weeks ago we introduced you to the Meatopia Trophy, an award we custom-made for Thrillist’s Meatopia Event. The custom award, which featured stacks of meat atop a golden cup, was such a hit that Thrillist came back looking for a similar award for their next event- Hall of Heroes.

If the mouthwatering image above didn’t make it clear, Hall of Heroes was a celebration of all things sandwich; the best things between sliced bread! Our concept then was to create an award that featured sandwich on sandwich on sandwich.

First we took our Meatball Sub, then we added a BLT, and finally topped it off with a mouthwatering Pastrami Sandwich. The result was nothing short of Far Out!

The chefs at American Cut Steakhouse, led by owner and Iron Chef Mark Forgione, created the sandwich that won the Far Out Award. For Hall of Heroes they made The Ruben: house-made pastrami, fermented slaw, ramp Russian dressing, and Jarlsberg cheese, “piled impossibly high on rye bread.” A classic prepared to perfection…YUM.

Yes, that’s an actual image of their Ruben. No, you can’t lick the sauce off the screen. Sorry.

The team at American Cut (pictured below) were clearly thrilled to take home the Far Out Award. Saucy swiss cheese smiles for days.

Chef Forgione himself stopped by the event and gave Thrillist a little iron chef insight into what makes the perfect pastrami sandwich. The short answer, their pristine pastrami they make themselves (it took them 3 months to perfect). Read more about the event, Forgione’s pastrami, and see more sexy sandwich pics on Thrillist’s write-up right here.

Looking for a Far Out Award for your next event? Visit www.faroutawards.com to find the most unique awards on the planet. If you want something custom like the Hall of Heroes trophy cup, just contact us with your vision and we will make it come to life!

For this year’s event, Thrillist contacted us for help making a Far Out Award that embodied the spirit of Meatopia. We combined our realistic looking fake ribs; Filet Mignon, burger patty, and Ribeye to create a juicy, meaty award for the Meatopia Champ. The result was our Meatopia Trophy a tribute to all things meat:

The winner of Thrillist’s People Choice Award at Meatopia was Quality Meats.

The lucky winners took home not only this Far Out Award, but a whole bunch of street cred as well.

You can find all the photos from the event right here. And be sure to get your tickets early for next year’s Metopia at #SOBEWFF, because they will sell out!

For more meaty awards, check out the BBQ, Burger, Chicken, Chili, and Hot Dog categories on our site. Looking for something more unique, crazy or creative? Contact us about making something custom, it’s our specialty!

Finally, a trophy to match your giant love for cheese. This trophy would be the perfect addition to any cheese lover’s living room.

Find it here. 

2. Decorative Cheese Leaves

Decorations you can eat? Count me in. You can find these at Williams and Sonoma.

3. Picnic Time Brie Cheeseboard 

This cheese board from JC Penny is perfect for a romantic excursion or as fancy snack to bring to work.

4. Mac & Cheese Cookbook

I mean, everyone should really own this.

5. Grilled Cheese Maker

Feeling fancy, but only have bread and cheese? This will perfect grilled cheese, every time.

6. Fondue For Two

It says for two, but realistically I’ll be eating this by myself. It comes with two dippers, so you can maximize your cheese consumption.

7. Slate Serving Tower

If it’s not a tower of cheese, it isn’t enough cheese.

8. Vermont Farmstead Lillie Cheese Wheel

Drooling. Makes for a great appetizer at your next gathering.

9. Petrified Wood Cheese Board

Two words: treat. yourself.

This Neiman Marcus petrified wood cheese board it every cheese lovers dream.

10. This Far Out Cheese Trophy

Because how else will everyone know how much you love cheese?!?

This smaller, compact, super realistic cheese trophy is the perfect addition to an office desk so you can flaunt you lover of cheese to all your co-workers. It also makes an excellent gift to any cheese lovers in your life.

Find it here.

1. Plan social and athletic activities.

For example, start a touch football league or a fantasy football league. This is a great way to create bonds between employees and have them interact with their co-workers in a setting beyond their work interactions. This will boost employee morale because it will give them something social to look forward to at the workplace beyond their work responsibilities.

Pro tip: Have a trophy to give to the winner to display on their desk or somewhere in the office. If you get one with space for multiple engravings, you can re-use it for many seasons to come.

http://www.faroutawards.com/football/?sort=bestsel...

2. Productivity awards

Recognize and reward top employees. If an employee is going above and beyond the call of duty- recognize and reward them for it. The most effective way to do this is to give them a trophy for them to place in their workspace. Not only will it boost their morale and give them tangible evidence that their hard work is appreciated, but it will show other employees that if they improve their productivity they will be rewarded for it. This is an easy way to ensure that your top employee will continue preforming exceptionally, and to incentivize your other employees to boost their productivity.

Pro tip: Give your top employee this trophy

http://www.faroutawards.com/estrella/

3. Employee-of-the-month

This is a time tested way to increase healthy competition between employees, while also improving and incentivizing the whole office to increase their productivity.

Pro tip: This Employee of the Month Plaque is unique and fun.

http://www.faroutawards.com/employee-of-the-month-plaque/

BONUS TIP!: Customize a trophy or plaque to reflect the uniqueness of your office at http://www.faroutawards.com/custom-awards/

4. Get creative with it!

Have a hardworking employee who is notorious for their coffee consumption?

Get them this fun and unique coffee trophy.

http://www.faroutawards.com/coffee-trophy/

Or maybe your hardworking employee loves sushi? Get them this beautifully crafted yellowtail trophy!

http://www.faroutawards.com/yellowtail-trophy/

Or your hardworking employee has an obsession with cats? They’ll surely be obsessed with this fat cat award!

http://www.faroutawards.com/fat-cat-award/

Regardless of the employee morale boosting technique you choose, trophies and awards are sure-fire ways to improve morale and increase productivity! How far out is that? Remember, if it’s not a Far Out Award, it’s just an award. 

Here at Far Out Awards we may not have any real grills or smokers, but that doesn’t stop us from creating our fake (yet realistic) BBQ for amazing awards on a daily basis. Some favorites are our BBQ Ribs Trophy, Bacon Trophy, Chicken Trophy, Pulled Pork Trophy, Brisket Trophy, and Smokin’ BBQ Beer Trophy, among many others. That being said, we consider ourselves especially unique (or Far Out) members of the Kansas City Barbecue Society.

Last month was the 30th Anniversary of the KCBS so we packed our bags full of Far Out BBQ Awards and flew out to Kansas City to celebrate. Here are some of the highlights:

Far Out Awards booth at the KCBS 30th Anniversary Banquet

A real favorite among the KCBS members was this custom acrylic award we made for the special 30th anniversary event. BBQ competition organizers were thrilled to learn that we could take their logo and make an award completely custom like this.

Here are Brian and Laurie Polak of Operation BBQ Relief posing with the custom acrylic award. Operation BBQ Relief is an amazing organization that goes to places all over America that have been affected by natural disasters and barbecues delicious meals for the affected communities. We asked Brian and Laurie to pose with the award after learning about Operation BBQ Relief, which is definitely deserving of Far Out recognition.

Another great highlight was when our President, Steven Bard, won the raffle for this amazing BBQ Smoker from Deep South Smokers!

If you are interested in joining the Kansas City BBQ Society or learning more about BBQ events near you, check out their site here. If you are in need some awesome sauce ’em BBQ awards, you know who to call… Far Out Awards!

The Berlin Police Department holds an annual "Stuff A Cruiser" event where they collect nonperishable food items and monetary donations for the town's food pantry. Usually they hold this event at a local Stop & Shop but in honor of the 10th anniversary of the "Stuff A Cruiser" event, the department also started an elementary school challenge. 

All of the town elementary schools participated in the challenge but St. Paul students really took the cake, collecting over 200 more items than any of the other schools. These kids aren't just cute, they're rock stars who are making a difference! It's that performance that won the St. Paul Elementary students the Far Out Canned Food Trophy. Don't worry, the other schools will have a chance at redemption... you'll notice their award is perpetual so that means you can definitely expect the elementary Stuff A Cruiser challenge to happen again next year.

Check out the article about the event in the Berlin Citizen Paper below:

http://www.berlincitizen.com/news/allnews/8064412-...

As a local Miami business, we are very familiar with croquetas. The Far Out Awards offices are surrounded with bakeries and grocery stores that dish out these delicious, deep-fried treats on the daily; croquetas are an integral part of Miami’s food culture. So when we were asked to make some custom Far Out Awards starring croquetas and flan for an event called “Croquetapalooza,” we were naturally stoked.

Now for those of you who are not quite as familiar with Spanish and Cuban cuisine as a native Miamian, croquetas are small fried food rolls containing a variety of ingredients; they can be filled with chicken, fish, potato, cheese, but in Miami it’s usually all about the jamón (aka ham).

Croquetas, for those of you who don’t already know.

Croquetapalooza was thrown by Burger Beast, a famous South Florida food blogger with a keen taste for local comfort foods. The event was held at the Magic City Casino, where over 10,000 croquetas and over 3,000 flans were served. According to Burger Beast’s write up of the event, 5 plant centerpieces were also stolen. If those stats don’t scream Miami, I don’t know what does.

There were three events: a croqueta eating contest, best flan (chosen by judges Roger Borges, Todd Erickson & Hedy Goldsmith) and best croqueta in the land which was decided by the event’s 450+ participants.

The winner of the croqueta eating contest was Miami Springs’ Mayor Zavier Garcia. The only croqueta Garcia didn’t eat was the croqueta medal Far Out Awards created for the event (though it looks like he may have tried).

Mayor Garcia tasting the success of his Far Out Awards croqueta medal

The winner of Best Flan was Fireman Derek’s Bakeshop, which as a sweets addict I’m ashamed to say I’ve never been to (don’t worry, that will change in the very near future).

Fireman Derek with his Far Out Flan Award

FLANtastic!

The esteemed prize of Best Croqueta in the land went to B&S Gastropub (reopening soon as Barley & Wich) who served up a Jamon Serrano & Manchego Croqueta. Congrats guys, I see a very busy grand opening in your future!

Chef Jorgie Ramos of B&S Gastropub holding the Best Croqueta award, a huge feat!

To see a video recap of the whole event and see what you missed, watch Burger Beast’s YouTube video below:

All pictures courtesy of The305’s Croquetapalooza coverage, see the whole post on The305.com right here.

Also check out the feature on bigmouthgirlz.com

Looking for a custom trophy of your own? Contact us at 305-974-4198 or start by filling out the custom award inquiry form right here.

As you (hopefully) already know, we just left October. As you also (hopefully) already know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Among women in the United States, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer (1 in 8 women will be diagnosed in their lifetime). The likelihood that you don’t personally know someone who has fought against breast cancer is slim to none. That being said, it’s no surprise that we have a whole month dedicated to raising money and awareness for this deadly disease. It’s pretty much impossible to not encounter a breast cancer walk/run in the month of October and it’s definitely impossible to miss the pink donned by NFL players all month long. Aside from the Susan G. Komen’s and big corporations that flood our social media however, there are tons of people who make an effort to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. These are the stories we tend to miss and they also happen to be our favorites. This is one of those stories.

This story takes place off the shores, in the beautiful Cayman Islands. The story starts at a Breast Cancer Gala Dinner where a live auction was taking place. Apparently, the attendees were in a giving mood and were hungry to keep bidding even though the auction prizes were dwindling. That’s when an impromptu auction item was added to the table, a BBQ challenge between the Ministry of Home Affairs Chief Officer Eric Bush and Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, to be judged by the governor Helen Kilpatrick. The tasty auction item ended up selling for $10,000! All of which went right to charity, of course.

The winner of the BBQ throw-down would win a Far Out Awards Perpetual BBQ Ribs Trophy and the title of BBQ King. The loser on the other hand would take home a Far Out Awards Banana Trophy reading “Not the BBQ King.” Ouch.

The event was written up in the Cayman Compass, and you can read all about it right here. Our favorite part of this story is really the ending. When it came to picking a winner, the Governor really couldn’t decide:

Eventually a solution was found: Gumbo, a dog that accompanied his owner to the event, would be offered a rib from each competitor. The chef of the rib he went to first would take home the first-place trophy, and neither would have the shame of accepting the runner-up banana trophy.

Gumbo chose Mr. Bush’s rib, which Mr. Manderson said was fine with him because he didn’t cook dog food.

Of course, the real winner here was the Breast Cancer Foundation, who took home the $10,000 that wouldn’t have been possible without the good sports who competed in this impromptu event.

The BBQ throw-down turned out to be bigger than they ever could have anticipated, and will likely become an annual event. Judging by the success, I’m betting the auction rates will go way up on next year’s throw-down.

Thanks to Dale (who came up with the idea for this event) for allowing Far Out Awards to be a part of such a great cause, and for sharing your story with us!