March 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 16

Who, WhaT, Where & hoW around The Parks

would both promote our parks in an effective manner and help generate some
added revenue for KRPA, " Vance says.
" The opportunity to work with the Kansas Lottery helped us achieve both goals,
but the end result is actually better than
we anticipated. "

Dennis Wilson, new executive director of the Kansas Lottery, embraced the
concept originally approved by his predecessor. Wilson indicated that working to promote an organization like KRPA
was a good fit in the Kansas Lottery's philosophy of helping to support industries

parks * golf courses * cemeteries * municipalities
Your one source for quality
* outdoor drinking fountains
* showers
* water hydrants
* pet fountains
* pre-engineered park and
recreation buildings
* outdoor bicycle security lockers

P.O. Box 3527, City of Industry, CA 91744
Tel. 800-45-DRINK (800-453-7465)
Email: info@murdockmfg.com
www.murdockmfg.com

Parks & recreation M A R C H

2 0 1 2 w w w . N R P A . O R G

that also enhance tourism and promote
healthy lifestyles.
To fi nalize the concept, however, the
challenge for Vance and KRPA was identifying appropriate prizes for the winning
drawings from the scratch-off cards.
Copt, an award-winning landscape artist from Lawrence who had recently been
honored as the Kansas artist of the year,
was interested in doing a project with the
Kansas Lottery. The state organization
had recently worked with another group
of artists in developing the Kansas 150
game to celebrate the state's 150-year anniversary and Copt was eager to lend his
talents to a future Kansas Lottery project.
After discussing the options, the Kansas
Lottery, KRPA, and Copt agreed to develop a series of four landscape paintings
of Kansas parks serving as grand prizes for the game. In addition, the paintings
would also be used as the artwork for the
scratch-off game cards.
It was determined that one park from
each of three geographic regions in the
state-east, central, and west-should be
represented. In addition, one " wild card "
selection from any of the three regions
would also be used as the fourth painting.
Vance received a wide variety of park
landscape photos from KRPA members
which he turned over to Copt, who made
the fi nal selections. Copt then traveled to
various park locations and took pictures
of what he wanted to use as the models for
the paintings. The experience helped reinforce his love of Kansas parks.
" I was excited to be a part of this project, " explains Copt. " As a native Kansan,
an artist, and photographer, I've traveled
the state and have an understanding of
the importance of parks and opportunities they offer for everyone. It was obvious that both park visitors and those who
maintain them take a lot of pride in their
parks.
" Even with the budget cuts faced in
communities, it's important that we continue to preserve our green spaces, "
Copt adds. " It's one of the more important uses of our tax dollars. "

March 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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