When someone downsizes their home, they have to think about what stays and what goes. But what do people do with relics from their life that carry deep meaning, like old trophies, that can’t make the transition into a new space?
At the Nationwide Trophy Recycling program in Madison, Wisconsin, staff and volunteers take old trophies for a fee and recycle the parts. Then, they rebuild new trophies and give them away for free to nonprofits nationwide. Alexandra Salmon takes us on a tour of the shop.
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Janet Gray walks past a huge mountain of boxes at her business. These boxes are filled with trophies and, as co-founder of Nationwide Trophy Recycling, she’s been storing them since 2020. She used to keep the recycled trophies at her other family business, Total Awards and Promotions, but they ran out of space. They needed to expand.
Janet Gray, co-founder of Nationwide Trophy Recycling, in front of the boxes of unopened trophies waiting to be recycled. (Photo by Alexandra Salmon)
“We just couldn’t keep up. Once COVID came, we as a family couldn’t keep recycling,” said Gray. “It was growing so much. The hallways, every single office… So we actually had a moving company move all the boxes over to here. Then the boxes just kept coming, so (the pile) got higher and longer.”
She points to a stack of boxes she picked up earlier in the day from UPS. Once she and her staff go through this box, they’ll keep making their way through the backlog of trophies.
“We keep doing the new stuff. So that’s why we’re finally getting down to 2020 and 2021,” said Gray.
People pay and put time into giving their old trophies to Nationwide Trophy Recycling. What is driving them to do this?
“What people are doing is a sense of feeling of honor. These awards have honor and feelings with them,” said Gray. “They just can’t take it to the garbage. Now sure, they could take them to Goodwill. Goodwill is going to sell them in their stores and take their plates off. (People) want to feel better about this. This is another step going forward saying you’re not going to just throw it away, you’re going to give them away to someone else to feel that honor. You’re going to pay it forward. So it’s those who really want to see their trophies go and have another life.”
Disassembled and recycled trophy parts ready to become new trophies for members of nonprofit organizations. (Photo by Alexandra Salmon)
Volunteer Nancy Haight is taking apart a trophy, unscrewing a name plate off a plastic base with an electric drill. Ironically, she doesn’t have childhood memories of trophies, since there weren’t teams for girls when she was in high school. Trophies weren’t exchanged.
“No, not for women. We didn’t play basketball. We did not play track. We were too feminine, and that was bad for your body, I guess,” said Haight.
She added that wasn’t her only shot at receiving an award.
“Oh I did, in my profession, I did. You would get plaques. You’d belong to an association that would recognize you, so yes,” said Haight. “It felt like you did a good job at what you were doing.”
Janet Gray reflects on what trophies mean to people.
“I think it’s about the honor and feeling of being appreciated, or of accomplishing something,” said Gray. “People need to be recognized. You’re going to stand up real straight when you’ve been appreciated. You’ve done all this work, and they love you for it. That’s what people feel when they get awarded with something, I think, the appreciation, you can feel it.”
Why is it that humans seem to have that need for recognition?
“Probably because — being that I was raised in the awards business — I really feel that people need appreciation. It’s your motivation. I think that appreciation is missing in our society. We take it for granted. It’s like a little gem. You get appreciated and light up like a light bulb,” smiled Gray.
Recycled trophies at Nationwide Trophy Recycling Program’s storefront. (Photo by Alexandra Salmon)
