A DIY Farewell for Retiring Skaters

Derby is now and has always been based strongly in DIY culture. “For the skaters, by the skaters” is the creed we all live by. So when I saw the retired skater awards at last year’s Circle City Derby Girls’ end of season party, I was moved. These homemade, highly personalized trophies are the perfect way to pay homage to our time dedicated to the sport.

One of the founding members of the Circle City Derby Girls, Megan Enemies, was the one who came up with the idea for these awards and crafted them herself. Since I have known her, Megan has always always emphasized the DIY aspect of derby. This wasn’t her first year making awards but it was a special one. “I love to make special awards for people, but last year was the first time I made for four retiring Socialites,”  said Megan, “With the departure of Spleana Rupture, Nova Blaze, Devil Woman and Cherry Slapstick, we essentially lost a power pack, and I wanted to do something to acknowledge their contributions to the league.”

As for how much time these awards took Megan, “I really don’t know how long it took to make these awards, but I probably spent several hours on each. And it’s just something I really enjoy doing, so it wasn’t like a chore for me.”

You can see the care and thought that Megan put into each award below. And the end result is everything derby should be about. Highly unique, like the men and women who play the sport. And handmade, because a sport that was built from the ground up doesn’t deserve a trophy from a store. Below is a picture of each skater’s award and how Megan came up with each one. I hope other leagues are paying attention, because this is an amazing way to give your retiring skaters the farewell they deserve.

Spleana Rupture

Spleana was the first to announce her retirement, and I decided to make her something that incorporated her skater number – 2931 – but I wanted to understand why she chose that number. I asked Major Rupture (her husband) about the significance of 2931. He said those were the birth months of each of their four children – February, September, March and January. I was blown away by that – so sweet! So if you look closely, you’ll see that each of the wooden numbers in her award are covered by the first initial of the child who was born that month.

Nova Blaze

Nova Blaze’s award was difficult. I had a vague plan to make something sort of outer-spacey. I originally thought about making a sphere – some kind of planet-like thing. But when I started really picking my brain about Nova’s personality, I just kept thinking about rainbows, hearts and love. That’s when I thought of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture, and realized L-O-V-E could be changed to N-O-V-A for her award.

Devil Woman

Devil Woman’s was the easiest. I wanted to incorporate either devil horns or a pointy tail, and to make it somewhat sparkly, but not too flashy or girly. I sort of made it up as I went along.

Cherry Slapstick

Cherry Slapstick’s award – the oversized replica of a Cherry Chapstick tube – was the most fun to make. The hardest part was getting the clear plastic to look like the real packaging. But I was so pleased with how it turned out!

The Circle City Derby Girls’ home season kicks off on 4/26 against the Fort Wayne Derby Girls. Tickets are available from Brown Paper Tickets.