Good things come in plain boxes

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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2003-06-16

Good things come in plain boxes
By Brad Mangin, SportsShooter.com

Photo by Brad Mangin

This is what's inside the big white box: binoculars, camera bag, keychain, coffee mugs, playing cards, card wallet, baseball cap, denim jacket, flashlight, pens and a monopod pad.

We just wanted to be able to give the SportsShooter.com Photographer of the Year something really nice, and we had our eyes set on the Canon EOS 1D. We had no idea it would have turned out like this.

At the moment, my home office looks like a warehouse, thanks to Dave Metz and Canon, who several months ago agreed to sponsor our monthly clip contest and donate "a few prizes."

Not only did Metz provide the EOS 1D as we hoped for, he also tossed in a EF 28-135mm zoom lens. A sweet end-of-year prize for the person with the most clip contest points, don't you think?

Then, as if this wasn't enough, Metz asked if he could give more.

The winner of "The Shooter's Choice" Award (the picture that gets the most votes overall, each month) was, he felt, worthy of something special too.

So Metz fired off an email to a long list of people, requesting items for what we're calling the "Canon Sports Shooter Accessory Kit".

Within a few weeks huge cartons of goodies started piling up on my porch. Canon-branded accessories were drop-shipped to my house from warehouses all across the country.

When the last of the boxes arrived I couldn't believe my eyes at all of the stuff that was now piled in my office. It made for some really tight working quarters, so I formulated a plan to reclaim my office space.

Photo by Brad Mangin

This is the cool camera bag that comes in the big white box.

I purchased 12 boxes -- big enough to fit all of the items within the "Canon Sports Shooter Accessory Kit", and assembled everything for the year. Luckily, I was able to ship 4 of them immediately - to all the previous winners.

Here is a list of the Canon goodies contained within the "Canon Sports Shooter Accessory Kit", as described by Metz himself:

1 Canon Professional Camera bag (for carrying your beer, since you already have a camera bag).
1 Canon 10 x 25 compact binoculars (for checking out the chicks or hunky guys in the bleachers).
1 Denim jacket (so you can look like Bruce Springsteen).
1 Pack of Canon Elph playing cards (for killing time before games when your Gameboy batteries die).
1 Canon key chain (so you can show everyone what the brain inside your camera looks like).
2 Canon coffee mugs (one for you, one for your editor's desk).
2 Canon swinger pens (one for you, and another for a "swinging friend.")
1 Canon ball cap (especially good for older bald guys).
1 Canon EOS-1D monopod wrap (must only be used on monopods).
1 EOS waterproof flashlight.
1 Canon CF card wallet.

I started shipping out the big white boxes of prizes last week to the first four "Shooter's Choice Award" winners: Tim Tadder (January); Will Lester (February); David Eulitt (March); and Jack Gruber (April).

It didn't take long before I started getting happy emails from pleasantly surprised winners.

David Eulitt of the Kansas City Star was pretty happy.

"I was quite impressed by the amount of goodies, not to mention the quality. I loved the red zippered EOS-1D CF wallet, which is very nice, along with a monopod cover and a nice set of pocket binoculars, which is not just a cheap pair of plastic either," said Eulitt.

Photo by Brad Mangin

This cool flashlight also comes in the big white box.

"Along with a Canon ELPH deck of playing cards, a handy weatherproof flashlight, a cool navy Canon EOS-1D baseball cap, a camera bag and a jean jacket!"

"Pretty impressive," Eulitt said, "especially for a Nikon shooter like myself."

"Kudos to Canon for being so generous in sponsoring SportsShooter.com and providing so much cool stuff to monthly winners. I'd expect this kind of loot for the yearly winner, not the monthly one!" Eulitt added.

The April winner, Jack Gruber from USA Today, was also pretty thrilled with his box of loot.

"Unbelievable gifts from Canon," said Gruber.

"Coolest thing is that I was ready to go out and buy another set of binoculars after crushing my pair in Iraq," he said.

"One set of binoculars and one 16-35mm lens lost in my little Iraq journey. The 16-35mm was spit in half by a slamming armored door. Totally trashed? No way. Canon put Humpty Dumpty back together again for under $300. Thank you Mr. Canon!"

This pair of Canon 10 x 25 binoculars is also inside the big white box.

Jack, who at times really likes to talk, continued on (a little off topic, but what do you expect from a guy who was getting shot on for a few months?)

"Totally huge Canon fan after putting all the gear through the worst conditions I have ever experienced. Nothing broke down. Can't say enough about the durability let along the 1D's just being a truly wonderful camera to use," he said.

"Just need to get the Department of Defense and Canon together before next little "routing out evil doers" excursion and strategically place a Canon Professional Service "Clean and Check" like at the US Open or Super Bowl somewhere along the way in a Canon sponsored M1A1 Tank. Just a thought," said Gruber.

"Love that hat," he said. "Goes right to the top of my head-wear rotation. You know you are getting a top-quality hat when you take it out of the box and Canon has already pre-sized it perfectly to your head. How do they do that?" he asked.

"Can't ever have enough mono-pod covers," added Gruber.

Gruber's longtime roomie Grover Sanschagrin was pretty excited when the big white box arrived in Albany and couldn't wait for Jack to open it up.

Photo by Brad Mangin

This is the cool card wallet that Grover took from Jack.

"He pulled the card wallet out and tossed it to me, saying 'Here, you can have this.' I looked at it and started to rave on and on about how much this thing kicked ass," said Grover.

"He looks up at me and says, 'Yeah? Let me see that again.' I was afraid he was going to take it back! So I used some guilt tactics and he returned it to me. Whew," he said.

Finally, Will Lester from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin was pretty happy with the contents of his box as well.

"Thanks, what a great package of goodies!!! The denim jacket fits great. I would like to get the name and email address of the Canon rep responsible for donating the goods so I can thank him personally," said Lester.

Four months have been awarded, but there are still eight big white boxes in my office pre-packed and ready to ship out on the first day of every month.

One (or more) of these boxes just might have YOUR name on it.

Remember, you can't win if you don't enter!

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