Cellcom Marathon gets creative with medals

Finishing this year's Cellcom Green Bay Marathon will only be one piece of a puzzle thanks to a local manufacturer's creativity and design work.

Race Director Larry Lueck wanted to do something different with the finisher's medal this year and Medalcraft Mint Inc. rose to the challenge. Medalist artisans and designers created a brass medal that is the first part of a larger medal finishers can assemble by running in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Cellcom Green Bay Marathons.

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"I really wanted to go with a local company and knowing that Medalcraft was here, knowing the work they've done in the past, it was actually a no-brainer for me," Lueck said. "We've got three great medals for the next three years."

The front of this this year's medal depicts the Leo Frigo bridge, the Neville Public Museum (plus dinosaur), Lambeau Field and the City Stadium gates. The tentative 2016 medal design features the Brown County Courthouse and St. Willebrord Church. And the 2017 medal will include the Claude Allouez Bridge in De Pere and parts of the St. Norbert College campus.

Turn them over and combine them, and the three medals depict Lambeau Field and statues of Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau.

"I wanted something runners will think is great one year, but if they come back for two, or all three years, then they get something that goes together to make an even better medal," Lueck said. "We wanted something that shows off the community, that the community can take pride in."

Prior to this year, Lueck said the medals had been ordered through an east coast company that outsourced the work. He said getting the project into local hands was a priority.

Jerry Moran, Medalcraft's CEO, is no stranger to challenges or high visibility projects. Medalcraft has produced the ceremonial Super Bowl coin-toss coin for the last two years, winner medals for the New York City Marathon, Grammy awards and countless other metal medals.

But this job was personal, he and his employees said.

"The puzzle concept is going to be interesting and hopefully the runners enjoy it and look forward to running it all three years," Moran said. "We felt very fortunate to get the opportunity to work with the Cellcom Marathon. Being a local company, we wanted to be involved in any way we could."

Medalcraft Solutions Developer Deenah Quinn and the company's design department pored over runners blogs and social media pages to identify what structures along the marathon route were most popular with participants.

"It means so much more because this is home," Quinn said. "(Those landmarks) all mean something. And we'll get to see peoples' reactions when they receive this."

Jeff Bollier: jbollier@pressgazettemedia.com or on Twitter: @GBstreetwise.