An intricately folded Old Glory encased in a metal frame, the New York City skyline, the colors of red, white and blue and 9/11 steel generously donated by the Tunnel to Towers foundation – these elements of the American image are bedfellows with the boldness, tenacity, patriotism and strength of the American spirit.
For this father-son duo, they're also the outward manifestation of a hobby-turned-dream come true.
Truncated into a handheld trophy, Shane & Justis Henderson's work will be handed out at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards this year. If you've watched the ceremony before, you've probably seen something akin to these figures, fashioned like an American flag, richly colored and adorned with accents that each have their own meaning.
The Metal Art of Wisconsin founders have had the honor of designing the awards handed over to Patriot Award recipients in 2022, and they're back with the same meaningful craftsmanship this year.
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"That was some of our best work, I thought," Shane Henderson said of the 2022 awards. "We thought we were going to have a hard time beating it, and I think we did."
Henderson joined FOX Business' "Varney & Co." this week to show off the 2024 pieces ahead of the ceremony.
Each is a 1.5-inch thick piece of hard maple donning copper rivets to represent New York's iconic bridges. A commemorative stripe of hand-forged 9/11 steel donated by Tunnel to Towers runs through the middle of the trophy and a backplate beautifully showcases the unique New York City skyline, as this year's event heads to the Empire State.
The rich blue color is normalized, meaning a vacuum sucks the dye all the way through to fully saturate the piece.
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"A wounded combat veteran out of Virginia, Jeff O'Connor at O'Connor Woodworking, did this for us," Henderson explained.
"The vacuum sucks all this dye into it, so the wood is blue throughout."
Though the statues have a significant meaning to those who receive them, they hold a different importance to the Hendersons. It has been their avenue to the American Dream, all after a happenstance discovery.
"When my son was ten, in 2013, we made a flag, we put it on Instagram. It went viral – like stupid viral. We had no employees. We had full-time jobs. We chased the American dream, you know? Eleven years later, we're a pretty large company. We've shipped 60,000 products, and they all revolve around patriotism, so it's all flags that open up, flags that turn into a bar on the wall, and we have a brand-new invention that we just did. We have a refrigerated flag called the Chill Daddy, and it's a big 4-foot flag that hangs on the wall, and it folds down, and it's got a refrigerator compressor in it," he told Varney.
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Attendees will gather at the Tilles Center Concert Hall in New York this Thursday to honor and recognize America’s patriots, including military veterans, first responders and other inspirational everyday heroes.
Fox News host Sean Hannity will emcee the sixth annual event that will be streamed live on FOX Nation beginning at 8 p.m. EST with an encore presentation airing on the Fox News Channel on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 10 p.m. EST.
Hannity announced on Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump will also be in attendance to receive this year's Patriot of the Year award.
Fox News' Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.
