The got Grip?® Awards are given out each year to a person (or persons) who display(s) awesomeness in their life(ves). That’s pretty much it, actually.
- 2013 – Karl Standeven
- 2012 – David and Janine Horton
- 2010 – Peter and Laurenda Futter
- 2009 – Brandon Clarke
- 2008 – Natasha Grant
- Lifetime Achievement – Brandon Holland
The 2013 got Grip?® Award is for Sound Engineering Awesomeness. Sure, Karl has a great ear for sound mixing, and sure he actually knows how the various electronic things that make sound actually work, and sure he’s really good at troubleshooting and fixing things, and sure he’s really creative when it comes to problem-solving (he’s basically the Macgyver of sound…), but really, what does all that say about his musical abilities? Nothing, because he’s a great singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist as well… but that’s beside the point. The point is that he’s really gone out of his way to take care of everything sound-ish for Free, and that’s pretty awesome in my books.
2012 – David and Janine Horton
The 2012 got Grip?® Award is for General, All-around Awesomeness, mainly because it’s really hard to pick one specific area in which Dave and Janine’s awesomeness shines forth. Adoptive parents. Local missionaries. Active in the community. Fun to be around. Great height distribution. Just a super couple of super people who superly deserve an award for being awesome (superly).
2010 – Peter and Laurenda Futter
The 2010 got Grip?® Award is for Child-Rearing Awesomeness. Peter and Laurenda used to have two foster children. Then they adopted them. Then they took in two other foster children. And all of them were (at the time of the award) between 12-15 years old. Four kids. 12-15 years old. With all the problems that go along with that sort of situation, even if the kids weren’t teenagers. But not only have they done this (by choice), they do an awesome job of raising these kids, in what’s a really tough situation. Hats off, indeed.
The 2009 got Grip?® Award is for Media-Making Awesomeness. Brandon is your media maker’s media maker, and all-around nice guy. Multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, and video producer, he can make media happen. Oh, and at the time he was given the award, he was 16. (As in, “you-wish-you-were-this-talented-at-16” talented at 16.) Call him Mr. Bright Future.
The 2008 got Grip?® Award is for Red Robin’s Shift-Leading Awesomeness. Nothing I could write here would do justice to just how nice Natasha is, but I should write something, so here’s what I can come up with. We used to go to Red Robin’s quite regularly (I still do, if I’m honest), so we got to know a few people pretty well, and Natasha (whose last name was “Lacey” when the award was awarded…) is one of them. She’s the kind of person everyone loves, at least partly because she’s super nice. She always went out of her way to take care of us, to the point that she used to bring us stuff she knew we’d want before we even knew what was happening (ask me about it sometime…). After giving her the award, other staff (including her boss) would come up to us and say we couldn’t have done this for a nicer person.
Lifetime Achievement (2009) – Brandon Holland
The got Grip?® Lifetime Achievement Award. Brandon Holland didn’t qualify for a yearly award, because (as mentioned in the presentation video) what award do you give a guy who has done what he’s done in the short time he’s been alive? He’s one of those guys who not only does a lot of things better than you, but he taught himself how to do said things. Like programming. Skype wanted him to work for them (but he couldn’t be bothered to move to Eastern Europe). Apple wanted to shut him down (because he’s better at what they do than they are). He’s done some parkour, some snowboarding, he does his own stunts (again, all self-taught), and he’s one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet. And at the time of this writing, he’s making moves toward becoming a missionary. (He got a taste for that sort of thing after a few mission trips to Fiji.)
