Partners for Parks Board Member Presents Gold Medal Award in Greensboro

Our neighbors to the north in Greensboro have joined an exclusive club, one Mecklenburg County Park & Recreation joined in 2012 – they received a National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Parks and Recreation from the American Academy for Park & Recreation Administration. Partners for Parks Board Member Brad Chambers, an Academy member, was given the honor of presenting the award on November 19^th.

“It’s a pretty lengthy application process, and an honor to win,” says Chambers, about the visit to Greensboro to present the award. The Academy consists of 125 recognized leaders in the parks and recreation profession, including professors, scholars, and practicing professionals. Chambers is one of a handful of members in North Carolina. Usually, winners are announced at a national AAPRA conference, but because of COVID, winners were notified in a virtual ceremony this year.

“We’re honored to win,” says Greensboro Parks & Recreation Director Nasha McCray. She notes that while beautiful and centrally located, Greensboro lacks inherent recreational features popular in North Carolina like mountains, a beach, or a nearby river. Still, a creative staff has always looked for ways to make the town’s natural features beautiful and accessible. “We have found a way to bring that energy and activity into our community and make the best with what we have.”

The National Gold Medal Award honors communities throughout the United States that demonstrate excellence in long-range planning, resource management and innovative approaches to delivering superb park and recreation services with fiscally sound business practices, according to the AAPRA website. Agencies compete in one of five classes, based on population size. Greensboro won in Class II, for populations of 150,000 to 400,000 residents. The other Class II finalists included Tampa, Florida; Henderson, Nevada; and Des Moines, Iowa.

Greensboro was also a finalist for the Class II award in 2018, but didn’t win. McCray says the staff doubled down on promoting new features on this year’s application, and a video that set them over the top. New activities in 2019 included an Adult Recess program, for young professionals, and a Park Locator app that allows residents and visitors to find local parks to visit.

As a veteran former park and recreation director, Chambers is familiar with the creativity parks departments need to stand tall in their communities. His work on the board of Partners for Parks, as principal at The Kelly Group, and as a member of the Academy allows him to stay a part of the park systems he knows so well.

“Every agency that wants to put their name in the hat and go for the Gold Medal, there is a long list of criteria,” he says. His proximity to Greensboro led him to present the Gold Medal for the Academy. In his remarks, he was sure to mention the importance of parks foundations like Partners for Parks, and the ability to reach outside of city and county boundaries for a regional impact.

“Greenways are a good example of crossing county lines — it takes many agencies to work together to make greenways and park systems work. Having a multijurisdictional association like we are, we can help facilitate that where the opportunity arises,” he says. A larger, regional foundation can also extend its reach by helping smaller foundations, like Friends of Greensboro Parks and Recreation, with ideas and efficiency.“We can be leaders so smaller parks and recs can use the framework for their purposes,” notes Chambers.

Congratulations, Greensboro. Welcome to the club!