Kadon established a special annual award to be presented to the individual or organization that created the best new pentomino or polyomino idea of the year. Each award is a unique custom design.

For the year 2011, the award went unanimously to Derrick Niederman for PathWords, his ingenious design of a series of wordsearch puzzles based on connected polyomino shapes, with each polyomino containing a different word. PathWords was produced originally by Thinkfun, Inc., who no longer offer it. We still have a few copies, and Amazon may have some.

The interactive award plaque was designed by Kate Jones and custom-made by Thomas Atkinson with the Kadon laser. The pieces in it are movable and playable. Here are some of the goals:

• Find Derrick's first and last name in adjacent squares of the picture above, always moving left, right, up or down to the next letter (no diagonals).
• How many other words of 4 or more letters can you find within this arrangement of the squares? Find at least 12.
• Remove the logo tile and slide the letters to form the arrangement on the right.
• Find at least 12 other words of 4 or more letters in the right figure.
• Slide the letters to any arrangement of your choice and search for additional words.

A formal certificate accompanied the award. Congratulations, Derrick! And kudos to ThinkFun for making and marketing this great puzzle.