PAST EDEIKEN AWARD WINNERS

NOMINATION FOR AKA’S 2024 STEVE EDEIKEN INSPIRATIONAL AWARD It is our great pleasure to nominate Mike Mosman for the 2024 AKA Steve Edeiken Inspirational Award. Steve was truly an inspiration to all of us who knew him, and we cherish his memory and shining example....

NOMINATION FOR AKA’S 2023 STEVE EDEIKEN INSPIRATIONAL AWARD Submitted by Jon Burkhardt, Karen Burkhardt, and Val Deale It is our great pleasure to nominate Jon and Marieanne Trennepohl for the 2023 AKA Steve Edeiken Inspirational Award. Steve was truly an inspiration...

With grateful thanks and admiration for his many contributions to the world of kites, we’re delighted to nominate Daniel Prentice for AKA’s 2022 Steve Edeiken Award.  In all his efforts for so, many years, he has exemplified the key characteristics of Steve Edeiken,...

Kiteflier of the Year is a misnomer. The award recognizes a body of work and a lifetime of contribution. We write to nominate a couple who together have contributed more than 60 years to improving, sustaining, communicating, and expanding kiting as we know it. We...

It is our great pleasure to send you this letter nominating Val Deale of Kensington, Maryland for AKA’s 2019 Steve Edeiken Award. Val has been involved in kites longer and in more different ways than most of us.  In all his efforts, he has exemplified the key...

This letter is to nominate Valerie Govig for the Steve Edeiken  Award.   We have Valerie to thank for our Association.  In 1976, she bought Kite Tales and the American Kitefliers’ Association from Bob Ingraham.  In reality, the AKA was merely a mailing list of...

When I saw the list of the Edeiken award winners recently I was very surprised to see our nominee wasn’t a recipient. How can that be I thought. He’s done so much, for so many, for so long, in and out of the kite world! That’s just wrong, I thought. As the program...

Nomination letter: For nearly 4 decades, this nominee has built a world-wide reputation as a designer, manufacturer and retailer of kites. This nominee first got her introduction to kiting by attending a kite festival in the mid-1970s. Soon after she started making...

Nomination letter:   We would like to nominate Archie Stewart for The Steve Edeiken Memorial Kiteflier of the Year Award. Since retiring from a career in telecommunications, Archie has devoted this phase of his life to introducing kite flying and the joy of...

Nomination letter:  This nomination for the Edeiken Award is long overdue. But our nominee is as deserving today as he may have been five, ten, or 15 years ago. We are endorsing for AKA’s highest honor, the consummate global kiting ambassador. He has certainly...

Nomination letter: I have long been impressed by the description of the primary Edeiken Award qualifications. “The Kiteflier of the Year will be a person who, during their lifetime, will have shown friendly, loving, fair, and even-handed concern for people in general,...

Nomination letter: The Edeiken award has been presented in the past, to kiters who contributed to our community by traveling on cultural exchanges, writing, organizing events, teaching, researching our kite history, and facilitating non-profits to promote or preserve...

Nomination letter: We nominate Peter Lynn for the AKA’s highest award -- the Steve Edeikin Memorial Kiteflier of the Year Award for his incredible lifetime of achievements in the kiting world. Today, if you search the web for kite related webpages about Peter Lynn you...

Nomination letter: This to nominate for the 2009 Steve Edeiken Memorial Kiteflier of the Year Award our longtime friend WILLIAM R. BIGGE. Though Bill is one of the most reticent kitefliers among us, we hope with this nomination to bring attention to his many fine...

Nomination letter: Steve Edeiken was a sport kite flier. So it seems appropriate to nominate for this award, the most successful and visible sport kiter in our AKA community. Lifetime Achievement awards are often presented to our older members. But some fliers start...

Nomination letter: We are writing to nominate for AKA’s highest honor, one of our most passionate members. He is passionate about all kinds of kites and has sold them for more than 30 years. Eschewing mass marketing and internet techniques, he prefers to teach...

Nomination letter: The Edeiken Award is about service to kiting. As we all know, service can mean big things and it can mean smaller day-to-day things as well. And so we are writing to nominate a couple that can be counted on for the big things, and to do the smaller...

Nomination letter: We are writing to nominate for the Edeiken Award, AKAs consummate showman. That showman is Pete Dolphin. A showmans reputation is more than simply a resume of accomplishments. A resume would detail that he had designed award winning freestyle...

Nomination letter: The AKA’s highest award, the Edeiken Trophy, is about spirit. It is about enthusiasm, innovation, exploration, and above all, about the joy of kiting. Two fliers who most highly exemplify these ideas are Lee and Sue Sedgwick. [gallery columns="2"...

Nomination letter: Stunt kiting did not spring, fully formed, as the sport, art, or science that we currently take for granted. It evolved from experimentation and play. It improved through trial and practice. It became a driving force in our kiting world, in large...

Nomination letter: We are writing to nominate Chuck Sigal for AKA’s highest honor, the Steve Edeiken Award. Chuck’s efforts to support kiting touch virtually every member of the Association. The pun is intended. For many years, he has been the AKA’s webmaster and has...

Congratulations to Bevan and Margo Brown of Burtonsville, Maryland who received the annual award for "Kitefliers of the Year' at the convention. The nominating letter was submitted by Valerie Govig, Mel Govig, A. Pete Ianuzzi and Arnold Simon; it has been excerpted as...