JimStoryAward

Jim Story Award

The 2025 Jim Story Award Contest
> Qualifying entries have won a 1st or 2nd place in an AGS-judged Competition
> Multiple entries from the same person are allowed (one for each category)
> Two entry categories: (1) Single Manipulated Gourd, and (2) Multiple Manipulated Gourds (inseparable)

Jim Story Award Entry Information

Jim Story Judging Criteria

About Jim Story

Who was Jim Story?
Jim Story was known world-wide as a gourd gardener, a gourd manipulator and molder of gourds. Ever the experimenter, teacher, and legendary supporter of the American Gourd Society, Jim encouraged many to follow in his step and manipulate gourds.
Read more about Jim here.

About the Award. In his honor, the AGS started the “Jim Story Award” in 2009 to encourage and inspire gourd growers to continue the exploration of gourd manipulation.

What Do You Receive if You Win?
1st Place: Choice of $150 or a Jim Story Gourd, a trophy and a photo of your gourd on the cover of the Spring issue of The Gourd Magazine
2nd Place: $50 & Certificate
****All winners will receive extra copies of the magazine for bragging rights

Want to Win the AGS Jim Story Award? Begin by Winning 1st or 2nd place in the JSA competition at an AGS-judged show at the Chapter or Patch level.
Details on *Entry Requirements, *What You Will Need for Your Entry and *How to Submit Your Entry can be found on the following page. Click Here for Entry Information.

You may be wondering what the Judging Criteria are for a Manipulated Gourd. There are 3 main criteria *Cleanliness, *Cultural Perfection, and *Manipulation. There is a "bonus" given to a gourd that was green cleaned.

The Judging Criteria are explained in greater detail on the following page: Jim Story Award Judging Criteria.

How Judging Works

Judging is done by AGS Members who are experienced in gourd manipulation. One of the judges serves as the Judging Foreperson, tallies the results and submits them to the JSA Committee Chairperson and Competition Manager. The members of this Judging team are not members of the JSA Committee.
Judges each receive a Judging Score Sheet and a submission packet for each entry. Entries are assigned a Code Number and all documents are reviewed to ensure there is no entrant identification on them.
All judging is done independently of the other judges and submitted to the Judging Foreperson. The scores are tabulated and the results are ranked 1st, 2nd & 3rd.