<p>Just read the thread on packing up S or D’s room when they go to college…and noticed that many posted their S or D was no longer interested in their old trophies. What is your solution to old trophies? Pack them up and store them or do you have some wonderful way to recycle them? DS did not want to part with his trophies. When we moved, the trophies were packed and except for the math trophies which he now has in his room, all his trophies are still in boxes. I’d taken photos of each trophy before I packed with the idea I’ll put together a scrap book of just trophies some day. What are you doing with your S or D’s old trophies? Do they still want them? Do you still want them. I guess for me its hard to throw them out as every time I look at them, I remember that day long ago when he won his first trophy and wouldn’t let it out of his sight for hours, he was so proud and so was I. DS has close to 100 old trophies - for now they’ll stay in boxes in the garage.</p>
<p>When we get the answer to that, maybe I can figure out what to do with H’s old high school trophies! Like father, like son. I have a feeling they will be in a big box for decades to come.</p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with trophies so much as plaques and medallions.</p>
<p>I wore 7 medallions and 4 pins at graduation. I have three Scholar Athlete Awards, 2 plaques just for playing golf, and 1 that I got for winning a scholarship (I’m not ready to part with that one just yet, as I just received it in June…it’s still hanging on the wall).</p>
<p>My mom wants to get a shadowbox for all my medallions (and the two letters that I received too late to place on my Letterman’s Jacket), but I always think, “Mom, it’s just high school. I still have college and maybe even grad school!” But is it worth it to put them in a shadowbox?</p>
<p>S1 played the local rec league sports growing up. He was never on championship team of any kind but they all got participation trophies. He didn’t care anything about those. We put them in the trash during the great closet clean out. I think we saved a trophy from a chess tournament he won (in 2nd grade!). His greatest “trophy” would prob. be his h.s football jeresy which still hangs on the wall in his room</p>
<p>S2 played all the little league sports and got plenty of participation trophies too. We have tossed most of those but did save the couple he got for playing on championship teams. I also saved a few jerseys from those years. They are a lot easier to store. He chose not to buy a letterman jacket in high sch. so I put his Varsity letter with the little football and bars in a shadow box and hung it on his wall surrounded by team pictures. He has his jersey on the wall. We also saved the tassels and medallions from h.s grad.</p>
<p>I think the stuff they did in high sch. is the most important. Neither one of mine really cared about a soccer trophy from 3rd grade.</p>
<p>If the trophies themselves are not engraved and instead have a small engraved plaque on the front that can be removed, I’m sure there must be a way to recycle them. I’d check with YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs and other organizations that work with kids, especially those in economically challenged areas, to see whether they would like them.</p>
<p>If you are still in touch or can get in touch with others who got the same trophies (the participation trophies), you might want to work with the others to make a mass donation to a willing organization so the organization has a number of matching trophies for their (re)use.</p>
<p>We took a picture of all the trophies then we removed the little title plaques and put them in a binder. After that we donated the trophies to a club that served a lot of disadvantaged youth. They could always use trophies for things. A few such as some swimmers did not work but most were fine. You can check with youth clubs in your area.</p>
<p>My D put them all in a Rubbermaid tub and her dad hauled it up to the attic…they’ll probably stay there till we move. I don’t think D is sentimentally attached to them, but I really don’t know what to do with them. One year, at the school awards ceremony where a trophy is awarded to the top student in each class, D was the top student in 6 of her 8 classes…so she has a matching set! I don’t remember the engraving, but I think it’s fairly generic - school name and academic excellence or something like that.</p>
<p>I have seen cute things in home decor magazines - collections of silver award cups filled with elegant cut flowers gracing a lovely mantel, but these trophies are just too tacky.</p>
<p>I’ve never told any of my friends this, but <em>several</em> decades ago, I was a county potato queen (not a Sweet Potato Queen, just a plain old potato queen)! When my mom was going through some stuff about 5 years ago, she found my old tiara and “Queen Renee” sash and called to see if I wanted them. I kind of wish I had said yes, but I didn’t. My sister’s son was staying with her at the time and had the idea to list it on eBay, and they got $35 out of it. Apparently there was more than one Renee out there with aspirations of royalty!</p>
<p>Kept 2 trophies that were “unique” to my child vs gen’l participation.</p>
<p>On the general participation ones, screwed off the athlete…lightweight plastic…and saved to use for sports banquet centerpieces (they look very nice in the middle of a plant, or stuck in the weight bag for a bunch of balloons!)</p>
<p>Gave all of the bases to a local art/craft recycling project.</p>
<p>As for shadowbox for medals…I’m still planning on putting one of those together for my child…with photos of receiving the medals…one of these days!</p>
<p>Shadowboxes – I’ve been planning to build one for WashDadJr’s Scout career, but it’s hard. The little so-and-so has 51 merit badges, plus rank patches, and souvenir patches from places like Northern Tier and Philmont. The shadow box is going to have to either be really big, or maybe have folding leaves like a wall-mounted dart board. As for whether he wants it or not – I don’t really care. It’s for my office, not his, at least until some semi-mythical future time when he wants it in HIS house. And we still have a big box of his chess trophies somewhere…</p>
<p>Boxes of trophies in the basement- Renee, I can see how it would be cool to have the tiara to show the future grandbabies! Wish I still had my letterman jacket, it would have been so perfectly retro for the kids to use in HS</p>
<p>and T shirts?? Still working on the T shirt quilt, it keeps stalling and getting put away and forgotten about, perhaps by the time she finishes UG ;)</p>
<p>My m-i-l solved her problem by giving all the trophies out to each kid when they had moved out into their own house. I think DH threw his away, or maybe they’re in the attic somewhere.</p>
<p>I’ve told my son I want to use the medals he’s collected to make the cover for the photo album with pictures of all the trophies (100 chess trophies). But he’s not ready to part with the medals yet either. The math medals are in a shadow box in his room as is the math trophy. There are only a handful of math medals and just one math trophy and they mean so much more to him. I do think I’ll check with some chess organizations at some point and see if they would like to reuse the trophies, that is when DS is ready to part with some of them. I do like the idea of removing the little title plaques from each trophy and included it in the album. My dream of this album is already too complicated, between making the album cover with medals and then trying to see if I can find the photos I took of the trophy presentations - yikes, I could work on this album for years! This is one photo album I should have done as we went along.</p>
<p>I have an avalanche of piano trophies, medals, and plaques large enough to maim a small mammal. I hate to throw them out… Too tacky to display, though. Big swooshing treble clefs and whatnot. I should scrapbook photos of 'em, but I’d love to hear any other ideas.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, they’re taking up badly-needed closet space…</p>
<p>WashDad, make two while you are at it, OK? PackerSon could use one for his Scout memorabilia too.</p>
<p>Makes one think about the “value” of a big piece of medal stuck on some wood, especailly for older students.</p>
<p>I get the idea that younger kids like the trophies, but if you had asked my daughters, they would have preferred something else- they liked the medals, small, didn’t need dusting, and after the initail receiving of the trophies, they basically never looked at the trophies again.</p>
<p>After two years in a closet, we donated ours to an orgaization that helps disabled people- they work with some of the items, taking them apart, etc or for art work, or to sell. </p>
<p>I for one don’t understand the appeal of trophies, to me its a waste of resources-one year my the local soccer league asked parents and kids if they wanted trophies or soccer balls as their “prize”- </p>
<p>Another CYO team sad they didn’t want trohpies, and would rather the money went back to the program for uniforms for teams that needed them. They have recyclbe trophies for pictures after the championship or whatever, they get a coupon at a book store, and it seems to work very well.</p>
<p>Once you get to college what would you do with them anyone? WHo wants to look at someone’s old highschool awards once that person is over 21? Have they done nothing since then? Or any thing else to decorate with?</p>
<p>Put them in a box, and after six months, you won’t even care. Pictures will be enough</p>
<p>My husband gets the golf plaques. I HATE them. They are gaudy, expensive, and just heinous. I tried to hang them in the bathroom, but he wants them in the bedroom. At least that’s not the living room. If he got something else instead of the plagues, he would have been happy, but once they are given, what are we supposed to do with them? </p>
<p>Oh, the ladies that won don’t get a plauque, they get a beautiful crystal vase, stunning, with their names engraved on a trophy at the golf club. PERFECT</p>
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<p>I thought this was a delightful freudian slip. =)</p>
<p>^lol. I am thankful that D’s challenge is medals, not trophies. Happily, medals are more fun and attractive to display, easier to store, etc.</p>
<p>heh…the plagues!!! that is now what they will be called.</p>
<p>They may want them later on, perhaps to show to their own kids or to “decorate” the house. I still have my old stuff in various places around the house.</p>