Heritage Crossing and a Garland Parks & Recreation employee were honored at the North Region Conference of the Texas Recreation & Park Society in early December.
Heritage Crossing received the Arts and Humanities Programming Achievement Award for this summer’s exhibit Garland and Beyond: Explore Garland in the Space Industry. Garland’s Heritage Crossing partnered with NASA’s Johnson Space Center to bring an out-of-this-world exhibit to City Hall. The award exemplifies commitment and dedication in the field of parks and recreation and Garland’s commitment to excellence.
Garland and Beyond told three stories in one exhibit: the history of manned space travel, the history of the International Space Station and, perhaps most importantly, the history of Garland manufacturing for the space industry.
Nancy Tunell earned the Part-Time Employee of the Year Award. As volunteer coordinator for the city, Tunell consistently displays an exceptional level of commitment, dedication and outstanding value to the organization and community. She has expanded the city’s outreach and successfully secured a North Central Texas Council of Governments grant that will continue to grow the program.
As the city’s number of volunteer events doubled, Tunell has significantly increased the city’s corporate volunteer network, mobilizing volunteers from local businesses, schools and religious institutions to benefit Garland parks. In the past year, she orchestrated more than 3,000 hours of volunteer service, equivalent to the work of one-and-a-half full-time employees, a value exceeding $72,000. All this while maintaining her role as a part-time employee!
Information and photo provided by city of Garland.