APRA Annual Awards

Recognizing Excellence in the field of Parks, Recreation, Cultural and Community Services 

Our Annual APRA Awards honors communities throughout the State of Arizona that demonstrate excellence in long-range planning, resource management and innovative approaches to delivering superb park and recreation services with fiscally sound business practices.

The APRA Award Program includes twelve categories. At the beginning of each calendar year, agencies are invited to submit applications for consideration, with a deadline of mid-April. Finalists are announced mid-summer, and the Grand Award recipients are announced at the ARPA Annual Conference.

A panel of park and recreation professionals reviews and judges all application materials. Judges are chosen for their considerable experience and knowledge in parks and recreation on both local and national levels.

Awards Dinner Details 

Nomination paperwork and supplemental materials must be received in full by the Awards and Citations Committee Chair via email by midnight on the submission deadline date. If paperwork is not in by the specified date and time you will not qualify - the new on-line form will automatically close on the listed deadlines.

Awards must be paid in full when you submit the form, so be prepared with credit card details.

Award Categories 

Submission Form

SUBMISSION DETAILS


Early Bird Deadline


$25 per nomination 

 payment must be made at the time of submission via credit 

All nomination information must be received by the Awards Committee Chair no later than Midnight, April 5, 2021. 


Regular Deadline 


$40 per nomination 

payment must be made at the time of submission via credit 

All nomination information must be received by the Awards Committee Chair no later than Midnight, April 19, 2021.

Nominating Tips

Each year the Awards Committee receives approximately 100 nominations. Each nomination is carefully reviewed by a panel of APRA members from around the State. Their responsibility is to select the most outstanding nominations for recognition. When submitting a nomination, please consider the following suggestions:

  • Read the criteria for each award category and the nomination procedures carefully.

  • The committee suggests that you use award criteria headings when writing your nomination. Each criteria is assigned a point value. Nominations should provide information pertaining directly to each award criteria.
  • Nominations should be clear, concise and well written. Most awards win based on the way in which the submission is written so be sure to pay attention or have your grant writer or PR staff help you wordsmith the document.
  • Submit complete nomination materials, submissions that do not contain all of the required details will not be considered.
  • Spend time preparing the nomination application; and submit in a timely manner.

The way in which you write and present your award will depend on the likelihood of winning.  Click below if you would like to view a copy of a past award winning submission and video presentation from committee members. 

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