January 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 53

ing agencies received the coveted
Grand Plaque Award:
* Class 1 (population 400,001 and
over) - Metroparks Toledo, Ohio
* Class II (population 150,001 to
400,000) - Greensboro Parks
and Recreation, North Carolina
* Class III (population 75,001 to
150,000) - Carmel Clay Parks
and Recreation, Indiana
* Class IV (population 30,001 to
75,000) - Decatur Park District,
Illinois
* Class V (population less than
30,000) - Green River Parks and
Recreation, Wyoming
* Armed Forces Recreation - Fort
Riley Directorate of Family and
Morale, Welfare and Recreation,
Community Recreation Division, Kansas
The National Gold Medal
Award Program is administered
by AAPRA in partnership with
NRPA and is sponsored by Musco Lighting, LLC. The virtual
National Gold Medal Award Program presentation can be viewed at
ws.onehub.com/files/n1lqc2h8.
On Wednesday, October 28,
Best of the Best took place. While
this year's ceremony looked a bit
different than in years past, the
park and recreation professionals
we honored were as inspiring as
ever. Emcees Neelay Bhatt, former NRPA board member, and
John Stutzman, chair of the NRPA
Awards committee, led us in recognizing the following individuals
and agencies for the innovative and
essential services and programs
they've provided over the past year:
Spotlight Awards
* Robert M. Artz Advocacy
Award - Greg Cox, chairman,

County of San Diego Board of
Supervisors (San Diego, California)
* Robert W. Crawford Young
Profesional Award - Anthony
Iracki, recreation supervisor,
Whitefish Bay (Milwaukee,
Wisconsin)
* RWJF-NRPA Award for Health
Equity - Carol Zernial, senior
vice president social responsibility and foundation executive
director, WellMed Medical
Management Inc. (San Antonio,
Texas); and Daryl Quarles,
manager, Senior Programs,
Dallas Park and Recreation
Department (Dallas, Texas)
* National Distinguished Professional Award - James Worsely,
director, Chesterfield County
Parks and Recreation (Chester,
Virginia)
Innovation Awards
* Innovation in Health Award -
City of Golden Valley, HomeRECed: A Navigational Guide
to Everyday Recreation (City of
Golden Valley, Minnesota)
* Innovation in Conservation
Award - The Woodlands Township: Three Pillars of Sustainability (Woodlands, Texas)
* Innovation in Social Equity
Award - The Pittsburgh Parks
Conservancy, Restoring Pittsburgh Parks: The Parks Plan
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
* Innovation in Park Design
Award and overall Best in
Innovation Award - City of
Spokane Parks and Recreation,
U.S. Pavilion and Howard St.
Promenade, Riverfront Spokane
(Spokane, Washington)
Attendees of Best of the Best

also celebrated the newly accredited and reaccredited park and recreation agencies.

The Exhibit Hall and
Other Virtual Activities
This year's exhibitors got creative with their virtual exhibit hall booths, crafting eyecatching videos, helpful resources and more for attendees to explore. Attendees also were able to
chat with exhibitors in real time
by utilizing the booth chat box
feature or entering exhibitors' live
Zoom rooms.
In addition to a virtual 5K,
other virtual activities that kept
attendees engaged throughout
the conference included a virtual
photo booth and health and wellness breaks, such as guided meditation via Zoom between education sessions.
NRPA's first-ever virtual conference was a great success thanks
to the countless speakers, exhibitors and attendees who made this
event possible. Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19
pandemic, park and recreation
professionals and advocates came
together to share the stories of the
essential work being performed by
those in the field. Thank you for
all that you do for your communities and for the park and recreation
community - we look forward to
seeing you in Nashville, Tennessee, for the 2021 NRPA Annual
Conference!
Vitisia Paynich is Executive Editor, Print and Online Content
at NRPA (vpaynich@nrpa.org). Jennifer Fulcher-Nguyen is
Web Editor at NRPA (jnguyen@nrpa.org). Lindsay
Hogeboom is Associate Editor of Parks & Recreation
magazine at NRPA (lhogeboom@nrpa.org).

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Parks & Recreation

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January 2021 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2021 - Parks & Recreation
