Awards Made in America
Domestic production enables transparency and creates jobs
Most trophy companies and award vendors in the United States are retailers. They purchase their products through distributors who, in turn, buy from manufacturers in the U.S. and abroad.
Rivanna is unique. We actually design and make our own products. We operate from a 10,000 sq. ft. manufacturing and production facility in Henrico, Virginia. Our woodshop is always humming, as our team wondrously transforms raw materials -- hardwoods, bamboo, and other substrates -- into awards, plaques, and corporate gifts.
Our woodshop is in a separate building from our production facility, where we engrave finished products, sandblast glass, and prepare orders for shipment.
We've been in business for twenty years. From time to time, we've explored other options for manufacturing our awards. Each time, however, we've chosen to keep making our own products, for the same reasons we chose to manufacture in the first place:
Supply Chain Transparency
Most awards sold in the U.S. today are manufactured offshore. There is little or no supply chain transparency in awards manufacturing, so it's impossible to know how such awards are made, what conditions the factory workers face, what the environmental impacts of award manufacturing are, or who actually owns the companies in the supply chain.
Job Creation
We exist to create jobs for those in our community who most need them. For recently-arrived refugees and other newcomers to the country with limited English-language skills, a living-wage manufacturing job can be an important step on the road to establishing economic independence. By definition, refugees are individuals who have fled their home country because of a well-founded fear of persecution. A manufacturing job at Rivanna offers the opportunity to hone existing skills or learn new skills in a creative, supportive environment.
Finding Meaning in Making
There is something uniquely satisfying about the creative, hands-on nature of our work. Every step in the process requires care and precision: sketching an award concept, selecting materials, creating working drawings, machining components, sanding, finishing, assembling. Every member of our team plays an important role in ensuring the quality and craftsmanship of our awards. We love this work. We are thrilled to see our precious awards in the hands of heroes from all walks of life. We love that good people who care about our planet choose the awards we've so carefully created to celebrate the important work of other good people.