Creating The Soldier On Award
The Soldier On Award was created to recognize annually an individual who has made a significant contribution to the cause of changing the end of the story for homeless veterans. As a singular honor, the Soldier On Award needed to be represented in a unique fashion. A plaque wouldn’t do the job.
To help create an award that would do justice both to our organization and to the people we choose to honor, Soldier On turned to sculptor Andrew DeVries, an internationally acclaimed artist whom we are privileged to claim as a friend and supporter. Andrew graciously accepted our request to help and began working in his Huntington, Massachusetts studio to create a statuette that award recipients could display not only as a symbol of our recognition, but as a work of art.
Andrew’s task was to create a sculptural representation of our existing two-dimensional brand avatar, the veteran carrying a flag bindle.
Andrew worked with Don Chevannes, a veteran on staff at Soldier On, as the model for the award.
He created a statuette that depicts the signature Soldier On veteran image with bindle and stick. But in a departure from the 2D image, Andrew moved the bindle stick off the veterans shoulder and into his lowered hands. The shift is intended to represent a veteran not on the move and in need, but at rest — at home, at last. The new position of the bindle signifies what recipients of the Soldier On Award have helped veterans achieve.
Andrew, whose stunning works in bronze have been exhibited and are included in permanent collections throughout the United States and across Europe, employed the same age-old process he has used throughout his career to craft statuette as distinctive as the individuals whom the Soldier On Award is intended to honor.
Each year, for each new recipient, Andrew will create a statuette in bronze for our honoree.
The first statuette will be presented to Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on October 29, 2009.
MORE ABOUT US
