Admin Management Excellence
City of San Antonio
San Antonio PARD COVID-19 Food Security Efforts: Through partnerships with community organizations and vendors, The City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department has provided meals to the community for over 50 years. These relationships provided a strong foundation, and proved to be essential, in the herculean effort to feed a community in crisis during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Excellence in Planning
City of New Braunfels and the U.S. National Park Service for “Dry Comal Creek Greenway Master Plan.
In 2010, the City’s Parks Master Plan identified the Dry Comal Extension as a key priority project for developing a city-wide trail system that connects all of New Braunfels. The plan envisioned the connecting the existing Dry Comal Creek Nature Trail north toward downtown New Braunfels and Landa Park and south toward older underserved neighborhoods and parks.
Maintenance Achievement
City of Irving “Pandemic Renovation Projects.”
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when available services were eliminated or curtailed, the City of Irving embraced a bold approach. Rather than being depressed about waning numbers and furloughs, the department embodied a new aphorism: “Don’t Waste a Good Pandemic” and took full advantage of the downtime for needed renovations.
Park Design Excellence
Harris County, Precinct 2 Parks “Atascosita Park.”
Atascocita Park is in Harris County Precinct 2, a rapidly part of the county that has lacked large parks—until now. Atascocita Park perfectly provides park access for many in an area with no large parks. The park is a great combination of natural beauty, active park facilities for surrounding neighborhoods, and a model for resilience and alleviating flooding in the devastating wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Dan Whitworth Fellow
Jerry Bark of the City of Harker Heights.
Jerry Bark has been a pillar of Parks and Recreation in Central Texas for three decades. He spent 5 years as the Director of Parks and Recreation in Copperas Cove, TX before accepting the position as the first Director of Parks and Recreation in Harker Heights, where he spent the next 25 years in that role. Jerry has dedicated much of his life to serving the area where he grew up and now serves as the Assistant City Manager in Harker Heights.
Individual Outstanding Service
John Moran from Richardson.
As a long-time Richardson resident, John Moran is one of the city’s and parks and recreation department’s biggest supporters as evidenced by selfless and humble dedication to serve his community in a variety of ways, including his countless hours of volunteer work in planning, preparing and executing with staff some of Richardson’s signature community events. He is often the first to arrive and the last to leave; he is the consummate team player, intuitively knowing when to lead and when to simply help.
Recreation Facility Design
City of Frisco for “The Grove at Frisco Commons.”
The Grove at Frisco Commons serves the City of Frisco and surrounding areas 50 plus population. This Active Adult Center opened in January 2020 to replace an outgrown facility and currently offers the community of Frisco opportunities for continuous growth, personal enrichment, and physical activity. Members are able to connect with friends and explore nature while discovering new ways to play within one of Frisco’s premier parks through recreation opportunities including social events, dance, educational courses, day excursions and overnight trips, creative arts, gardening, and so much more.
Organizational
/Volunteer Service Award
City of Allen – Allen
Parks Foundation
The Foundation accomplishes their goals through several programs, including a thriving Park Ambassadors program, a free of charge Tool Trailer for community members to improve green spaces, an updated Trail Marker way finding project, support during award‐winning special events and energetic volunteerism. A majority of the Allen Parks Foundation members are “all in” and have devoted a lifetime to serving on the board, making their impact in our community a long-lasting one.
Park Development Innovations
El Paso Parks & Recreation — Development of A Mobile Smartphone Application for Seniors
Since 2017, the City of El Paso’s Parks and Recreation Department has been partnering with a multidisciplinary team of faculty and students from The University of Texas at El Paso to understand the functional needs and design features senior users would like to have in smartphone applications that address their social and mobility needs. This project has established strong social ties between the city staff, seniors and the university community and is also creating future professionals with an awareness, sensitivity, and commitment to serve seniors in the El Paso community and in their future professions.
Arts & Humanities
Class I
“City of Garland “Big Art Day.”
This hands-on event focused on art education and featured many activities for the over 1000 attendees from the Garland community to enjoy and engage in that focused on art education with live art demonstrations, performances by GISD students, games and food trucks.
Class II
New Braunfels “Recipes for the Soul—a book of funeral food, tips and stories.”
Recipes for the Soul are a compendium of tantalizing recipes, tales of love and loss, and a bit of New Braunfels history with tips for soothing the soul. Written by Texans with deep ties to their local heritage and commissioned by the New Braunfels Cemetery Committee, the book proceeds helped fund long-term preservation of two historic New Braunfels cemeteries.
Class III
“Farmers Branch Historical Park, City of Farmers Branch for “Girls Make History Camp.”
Girls Make History Camp was established to provide a safe, affordable, educational, empowering, and engaging experience for young girls AGES 5-13. Campers explored the history of women, their contributions to society, and learned how girls’ roles have evolved over the years using a variety of history lessons, fun crafts, activities, and games to explore the impact women have made on American History.
Class IV
“City of Elgin for “Free Weekly Activity Books.”
The Free Weekly Activity Books provided crafts and art supplies for children and families to be able to explore different elements of play and child development over seven “days” of activities that ranged from arts & crafts to educational materials, all free of charge forall members of their community.
Promotional & Marketing Excellence
Class II
City of Allen
Cece, the Coelophysis, was on the loose for more a month in Allen, TX, and although considered friendly and playful, she regrettably loved candy (a carnivore – clearly), therefore, had to be found before Halloween. The Big Escape – Search for Cece the Dinosaur exposed residents to new parks, trails and historic locations around the city, educated citizens on city services (e.g., microchipping your pets) through fun, supplemental videos and supported local businesses in a difficult economic time. The month-long event captured the attention of the entire Allen community, gave families a reason to get outside together after being cooped up for months, inspired children to learn more about dinosaurs and created unforgettable memories for hundreds of children and families as well as parks and recreation staff.
Lone Star Recreation Programming Achievement
Class II
City of Allen Parks and Recreation for “The Big Escape-Search for Cece the Dinosaur.”
- With special events canceled in 2020, The Big Escape – Search for Cece the Dinosaur was designed as a safe, socially-distanced event themed around a dinosaur’s escape from The Dinosaur Company (TDC), a world-renown company headquartered in Allen who makes life-size animatronic dinosaurs and other creatures. They partnered with APAR to help expose residents to new parks, trails and historic locations around the city, educated citizens on city services and gave the entire Allen community a month-long event.
Class III
City of Conroe for “Fun Quest Connect.”
In less than a week, City of Conroe PARD joined forces with Conroe ISD and modified the existing Fun Quest Summer Day Camp to create Fun Quest Connect. This partnership provided Chromebooks to all participants and ensured Wi-Fi that was strong enough to accommodate the increased internet demand so students could interact with their class and teachers via zoom and various platforms and could complete schoolwork during program hours without taking work home to complete, and still have fun!
Class IV
City of Coppell for “You’ve Been Pumpkined.”
‘You’ve Been Pumpkined’ offered a social distancing experience for children to hunt and receive candy in their own front yard. The program was successful at keeping residents safe and gave families a chance to enjoy a bit of normalcy because they were able to celebrate Halloween together in a fun, innovative way.
Class V
City of Elgin for “Cardboard Boat Race.”
The first ever Cardboard Boat Race was hosted in Elgin over the summer of 2020 in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, where families looking for something to do to keep children entertained, teamed up in groups as big as 6 people were invited to build and enter a cardboard boat into a competition against other community members. The goal of the program was to support STEM programming by encouraging families and children to engineer and build a boat from cardboard and duct tape that will not only float, but support their own weight, and be able to be paddled across our local public pool.
Gold Medal
Class II
The City of Carrollton
Through an annual budget process, Carrollton Parks and Recreation is tasked with formulating a three-year projected business plan that focuses on the needs of the community which are outlined in their Parks and Recreation Master Plan. These business plans serve as a road map for staff to better implement current trends for their community and to make changes based on internal evaluations and citizen input while also being competitive in both the public and private sectors.
Class III
The City of Grapevine Parks and Recreation
The Grapevine Parks and Recreation Department uses a variety of methods to collect feedback and determine the current parks and recreation needs from our community. The quality of life for citizens in the City of Grapevine is very important and a top priority for the Grapevine Mayor and City Council. On a day-to-day basis, the Department uses quality assurance as a way to improve their daily programming and operations, along with engaging with the community through social media outlets where both positive and negative feedback can be addressed instantly.
Class IV
The City of Farmers Branch Parks and Recreation
The Farmers Branch Parks and Recreation Department began the process of research and development for the first City-Wide Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan in early 2019. After communication with city management, parks and recreation staff, planning staff, and sustainability staff they initiated research for a consultant to assist with the formal development of the master plan document. In October 2019, a consultant was hired, surveys from 2017 were evaluated and used to develop a comprehensive plan, that implemented a series of cost-savings initiatives, recommended additional fee increases, as well as staff hires and reorganizations.
Class V
The City of Bellaire Parks and Recreation
The Parks Master Plan, which included the implementation of a Citizens Survey, provided direction towards the development of the 10-year master plan that has been aggressively enhancing the parks and recreation amenities across the City of Bellaire. Between the years of 2017 and 2019 in collaboration with public/non-profit partnerships, the department has placed the highest priority on providing outstanding customer service and ensuring an exceptional experience for the patrons of the Bellaire community.
Young Professional Award
The 2021 Jerry D. Garrett Young Professional Award goes to Ryan Smith of Bellaire Parks and Recreation
Currently employed with the City of Bellaire as the Superintend of Recreation in the Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Department. Ryan Smith has been an active member of TRAPS since 2012 and NRPA since 2014, the same year he was a participant in the inaugural Academy of Leadership Development program offered by TRAPS. His outstanding organizational skills and unfailing drive have had a tremendous impact in his roles with East region leadership roles, as a part of the city’s Emergency Management program, as the Founder and Chair for the TRAPS Future Young Professional Branch, and in his efforts to start the TRAPS mentorship program Many would consider Ryan Smith as a “go-to” player who is always willing to take on a task or challenge for the betterment of his city and profession.