The (Mini) Barrel - Auction for Charity

Last year, the Louisville-Indianapolis Proximity Association Football Contest (LIPAFC) took another step in its lore when Matt (@LouCitySting) took the time to physically create a trophy for the competition that had just been an idea between supporters. I think it is now considered an "official" trophy between the two teams and is awarded to the team that wins that year's series between Indy Eleven and Louisville City FC. Named simply The Barrel (TM), the trophy recognizes the constant construction traffic that separates the two cities, and currently resides in Indianapolis. The last I saw of it, it was sitting in the house of current Brickyard Battalion President Katherine Reed.

In October, I decided to take Matt's inspiration and scale The Barrel down to something that didn't take a corner of my house like it does in Katherine's, and created a 1:10 scale version of the trophy using a 3-D printed barrel, some high resolution printing, and my first attempt at weathering the barrel without actually destroying it. Since it was made of 3-D printed material, I couldn't dent it to look like the full-scale version, but I thought it turned out well enough that I decided to share my scaled version of the Barrel on Twitter. Luckily for my ego, The (Mini) Barrel was well received, with several people either suggesting I could sell them, or that I should sell them. I never made it to make money, but was happy that people liked my version of The Barrel. 

However, one of the comments for that Twitter post came from the Brickyard Battalion and suggested selling them and donating the money, which caught my attention. I don't have a ton of desire to take a bunch of 1:10 scale models of traffic cones, weather them, and sell them, no matter how much I might make from them, from a fairly small demographic (Indy Eleven or Louisville City fans, wanting to have a version of the trophy in their home...). I kept coming back to the idea though, of creating a LIMITED amount of The (Mini) Barrels, auctioning them, and donating ALL THE PROCEEDS to charity. 

So that's what I've done. 

If you've ever looked at my answers to my Soccer Life questionnaire, or my Twitter account, I have always associated my soccer career with the #6, so I decided to create SIX versions of my original (Mini) Barrel and will be auctioning them leading up to this year's first LIPAFC contest on May 27th. Bids will close at 11:59 PM of the Thursday before the game (May 25th) and bids will be received by commenting to this post with your bid and preferred barrel so that everybody can keep track of the latest bids. Winners will be notified on Friday (May 26th) via this post and by a Twitter post by me. If you're going to be at the LIPAFC game on the 27th (or know somebody who will and can get yours to you), I will hand deliver your winning (Mini) Barrel to you. If I need to ship your (Mini) Barrel to you, I would ask that you pay for the shipping. Winning payments can be via cash in person or via Venmo (details upon winning).

Again, ALL PROCEEDS will be donated to charity, and I have selected The Julian Center in Indianapolis as the recipient of the donation. The Julian Center "was founded in 1975 to support survivors of domestic and sexual violence throughout Indiana and empower them to recover and build a life for themselves and their families absent of abuse." Every cent from each of The (Mini) Barrels will be donated to this organization.

I would like to request that bids for each (Mini) Barrel start at $30. If bids reach $60, I will include a scarf to add to your winnings (I do have one Louisville Racing scarf, and one Louisville City scarf with the short-lived failed logo change from 2019 if you happen to be an auction winner from Louisville and don't want an Indy scarf, which you can see in the photo to the right). If bids reach $100, I'll transfer two tickets to you for any future Indy Eleven game this season.

The (Mini) Barrels:

• Come with a black stand (which you can see in the photos), but the barrels can stand on their own without the stand.
  
• Have a label indicating that it was part of a LIMITED EDITION SET of 6.
• Resemble each other, but are not exact duplicates, as I'm a human being and not a machine.

Below is a photo of each of The (Mini) Barrels being auctioned

Barrel #1

Barrel #01 - with Base

Barrel #01 - without Base

Barrel #01 - Label

Barrel #2

Barrel #02 - with Base

Barrel #02 - without Base

Barrel #02 - Label

Barrel #3

Barrel #03 - with Base

Barrel #03 - without Base

Barrel #03 - Label

Barrel #4

Barrel #04 - with Base

Barrel #04 - without Base

Barrel #04 - Label

Barrel #5

Barrel #05 - with Base

Barrel #05 - without Base

Barrel #05 - Label

Barrel #6

Barrel #06 - with Base

Barrel #06 - without Base

Barrel #06 - Label