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Roanoke Parks and Recreation received three awards from the Virginia Recreation and Park Society at its annual conference this month in James City County. The awards are presented annually to programs demonstrating excellence in the field of recreation by service area population.
Best New Special Event (pop. 50,001-100,000) went to “Saturday Night Dive-In Movie at Fallon Park Pool.” This unique event, first started in 2006, encourages residents to bring their families and their floatation devices to the pool after operating hours to enjoy a cool dip while watching a movie on the big screen, such as Dreamworks Pictures’ “Shark Tale.” It was recognized as giving a new dimension to aquatic programming in a family atmosphere. Roanoke also brought home the Best Promotional Effort Award for Apparel for the Fall Waterways Cleanup and Celebration t-shirt. This brightly-colored shirt includes a full-color logo of hands holding a globe (symbolizing the earth and waterways) with orange and yellow fall leaves and has been given out to hundreds of participants as a thank you for collecting more than 34 tons of trash along the Roanoke River and its tributaries. This program is a partnership with Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op (who designed the logo), Clean Valley Council, neighboring jurisdictions, environmental agencies and civic groups. The third award was Best New Special Event (pop. greater than 150,000) for the BG US Challenge presented by Fortune, accepted with Roanoke County Parks, Recreation and Tourism. The regional partnership of municipalities, Roanoke Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and economic development groups, enabled the three-day inter-business team-building competition to be a huge success, resulting in awarding event beneficiary St. Jude’s Hospital $500,000. A great deal of economic impact was made by the 47 teams visiting from across the country and $1 million in advertising positioned Roanoke as a world-class destination. The Virginia Recreation and Park Society is a private, non-profit professional organization with a mission to unite professionals, students and interested lay persons engaged in the field of recreation, parks and other leisure services in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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