For whoever is on the reunion committee
Family reunions run on a few volunteers with a clipboard, and the awards are the part everyone remembers. This page collects the contest designs built for a reunion (Furthest Traveler, Grill Off, Longest Name) with a few general borders for the awards you make up yourself.
The awards every reunion gives out
- Furthest Traveler: the family that drove or flew the longest way.
- Grill Off champion: judged by the longest line at the serving table.
- Longest Name: count the letters, settle the argument.
- Oldest and youngest attendee: the two people in the middle of the group photo.
- Best dish: or best pie, best potato salad, best thing nobody can identify.
- Family historian: the one who brought the photo albums and knows who everyone is.
- Biggest family: most people under one roof who made the trip.
- Reunion MVP: the person who booked the pavilion, printed the T-shirts, and kept the schedule.
And the running jokes: Most Likely to Fall Asleep After Lunch, Best Dance Moves, Loudest Laugh, Last to Leave. Add a kids' set (Best Cannonball, Fastest Sack Race, Champion Bubble Blower) so the youngest cousins go home with something.
How to word a reunion award
Use first names, nicknames and family titles the way the family does: "Aunt Bernice," "Cousin Denise," "Pop-Pop." The description is the place for the story: "For driving 1,400 miles with three kids in the back seat." Sign it from the reunion chair or the games committee, so the certificate records who was in charge that year as well as who won.
Printing on the morning of
Fill in one certificate and print it to check the layout, then swap the name for each award. If you are printing at a hotel business center or the public library, plain paper is fine; a sheet of card stock and a plastic certificate sleeve from a dollar store will keep it safe in a car on the way home. Check that the printer is in landscape first; the printing tips show how on Mac and Windows, and what to do if the certificate comes out small.
No cost to the reunion fund
Every design is free, with no login and no email. Print one award or fifty on the night before, or at the picnic table from a phone.