Cranberry Township Parks workers honored
CRANBERRY TWP —The township honored parks and recreation employees Saturday at the Cranberry Township Community Days festival with a ceremony declaring July 16 as Park and Recreation Professionals Day.
Pennsylvania Recreation and Parks Society CEO Tim Herd visited the festivities as part of the Society's three-stop Spotlight Tour around the state to highlight local celebrations in the lead-up to the commemorative holiday.
Park and Recreation Professionals Day was first declared in the state of Pennsylvania in 2019 in order to thank parks and recreation employees. The celebration falls during National Park and Recreation Month. Cranberry Township adopted the holiday earlier this July.
“When you visit a park, it's clean, safe, and ready to use,” said Herd at the ceremony. “It's entirely fitting to credit those professionals who provide that. Consider today a tribute to the Cranberry Township Parks and Recreation Department.”
The township's board of supervisors vice chairman Mike Manipole read the official proclamation and congratulated the gathered group of employees.
“We're here today because of all these great characters behind me — they're a great group. These people saved Cranberry Township from the pandemic,” Manipole said, recounting instances of Cranberry Township residents taking advantage of Parks and Recreation sites and resources during COVID-19 for socially distanced activities. “(Parks and Recreation) did so much for mental heath, so much for togetherness, and so much to make Cranberry Township a better place.”
At the ceremony, Herd presented Cranberry Township with an award for Excellence in Recreation and Parks that the township had earned in 2020 for its athletic field maintenance program and manual, a version of which has been used statewide.“This is a competitive award across the state among our members for excellence,” Herd said. “Cranberry Township is well-known for its manicured athletic fields, open space areas, and parks and properties. The equipment and facilities are well maintained, attractive, and set a standard well above normal for most municipalities.”He emphasized the stellar work of all Cranberry's parks and recreation employees to the audience.“The facilities and fields that you enjoy don't just happen,” Herd said. “They're a product of years of disciplined care, adherence to procedures, and adaptations to circumstances and daily needs.”
Cranberry Township Parks and Recreation Director Pete Geis accepted the awards at the ceremony.Geis said he was proud to see Cranberry parks and recreation workers be given credit, and called them “heroes.”“We're really excited about it — we're glad all our employees are being recognized for the great job that they did,” Geis said. “Our crews out there never stopped. Our parks were used an unprecedented amount during COVID, and our crews were still operating on all cylinders.”
