My great uncle recently passed away at 88-years-old. From his 50s into his 70s he was a very good masters runner and prolific road racer. He almost always won or placed top 3 in his age group and took home a TON of hardware. He ran some local low key stuff, but also plenty of prestigious events like National Masters Championships, major marathons and even World Masters Championships. He still holds a US age-group record at 30K.
Long story short, we are cleaning out his apartment and I'm at a loss about what to do with his running memorabilia. I'm going to take a couple particular trophies that I find meaningful, but no idea what can be done with the rest. There is way too much stuff for me to keep ... plus he lived in California and I have to fly back to the east coast. There are some really cool large trophies from the 80s as well as old medals from back when USATF was "TAC".
Any ideas what to do with all that stuff? I know realistically, it probably just needs to be thrown out, but I hate the idea of tossing his prized awards in the garbage. I wonder if even there is some way to donate them somewhere? Even if they were broken down and used for new trophies, better then ending up in a landfill somewhere.
Thanks for any thoughts.
So my uncle passed away. What should I do with all his old running trophies and awards?
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No one will value them more than your family will.
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Give the ones you do not want to your uncles athletics club for use as kids trophies etc.
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Wow, sounds like a great guy! Sorry to hear of his passing; sounds like he lived life to the fullest.
One great org is Medals for Mettle. I met the founder at an expo once, he gives kids with cancer medals. They focus on marathon and half medals,
http://www.medals4mettle.org/
I'm sure there are other similar orgs out there as well. Another though, I wonder if his old HS or college might want one? Alum-who-did-well type of thing?
Nice of you to try and re-home them! I agree, some of those sound like they'd be hard to throw out. -
Too late to bury them with him?
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I recently moved to a much smaller home and had to get rid of a bunch of my running 'trinkets'. It was much easier than I thought. Like you, I went through and kept the medals or trophies for bigger more prestigous races. I simply trashed the rest. The small trophies from the podunk 5Ks, while was neat to have while I had a basement, was not important enough to keep. I also threw out over 100 running t-shirts.
Maybe some local running clubs, HS teams or such could reuse or recycle the larger trophies you don't want to throw away? -
Yeah, try to find somewhere that will take them and repurpose them with a new logo/text on them. Otherwise it's the trash can. It isn't like t-shirts where people sometimes do cool things like make a blanket out of them.
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My grandfather passed away last year. He wasn't a runner, but he amassed tons of awards and memorabilia from a service organization he'd belonged to for pretty much his entire adult life.
Like you, we didn't know what to do with it all. So each family member took one item to remember him by. Then we asked members of his service club if they wanted anything. What was left, we threw away.
We didn't throw out our memories of him...they live on. We threw out stuff. In the end, that's all it is...stuff. His memory lives on. His stuff didn't have to. -
Like some others have said find a club. I'd suggest finding a youth club nearby (or the city rec department) and I'd be willing to bet they'd be thrilled.
Our club in Winston used to do a cross country event each year where all the trophies were hand-me-downs or leftovers (as were the shirts) which meant they could put on a free event with trophies and shirts. -
I used to coach HS and once a year they had a middle school track and field day. We brought in all our old medals and trophies and gave them to the kids who did well. The next day they all showed up to school wearing their medals. It would be a nice tribute to your uncle and the kids will love them.
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I second this recommendation.
Each fall in the city I live in they do a totally free and informal half-marathon. When you cross the finish line they give you a medal from some other race. You then give that medal back and they hand them out to sick children. It's turned into one of my "can't miss" runs of the year. -
Perhaps set them out on a table for a few pictures, or a video. Some of the donation ideas are thoughtful. Keeping a some for yourself is also a nice idea. All the best.
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Old 'n Slow wrote:
I used to coach HS and once a year they had a middle school track and field day. We brought in all our old medals and trophies and gave them to the kids who did well. The next day they all showed up to school wearing their medals. It would be a nice tribute to your uncle and the kids will love them.
This. I did the same as most of my old trophies were at my grandmother's house. When she passed I donated all to a local road race - after taking off and saving the nameplates. When I won my age group at that race I was honored with first choice of the trophies - so kept one I had won overall some years ago. Gave a nice incentive and saved the local club a ton of money.
Might I suggest taking photos of the awards before you do anything? That way you have some reminder as well.
Sorry for your loss. -
If he was a member of a local club or clubs approach them to see if they can use some to create an award in his namesake...or perhaps add to their archives.
Failing that - consider approaching the rest of your family to see if they would like a momento as well. -
Take all the medals and weld them to a large piece of rectangular sheet metal. Make a large coffee table. Then put a piece of glass over top so that you can view his awards while siping coffee. Don't give his hard earned awards to people you dont know.
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You can even weld them to the legs of the table and if their too many metals then make a second level shelf and do the same thing
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I was surprised when I attempted to throw out a box of old running and hockey trophies and a neighbor knocked on the door and asked if she could have them.
Later I found that she took the plates off them and had a couple in her home to bookend her participation medals.
One person's junk ... -
This way when you have company they will always ask about the coffee table and you can tell them about how great your uncle was
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Any relatives in the area? Little kids enjoy playing with the stuff. Other than that, there is the trash bin.
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joedirt wrote:
Any relatives in the area? Little kids enjoy playing with the stuff. Other than that, there is the trash bin.
No respect
