Scholarships and Awards

Each year, the Society sponsors a scholarship and award program designed to honor the outstanding achievements of its members. Scholarships are provided by TRAPS and the Texas Park and Recreation Foundation to student members to participate in a number of training events throughout the year. Award nominations are solicited through our Citations/ Awards Committee to honor top achievers in a variety of categories, including Young Professional, Honorary Lifetime Achievement, Outstanding Programming, Innovations in Park Development and a host of others.

Texas Gold Medal

The Texas Gold Medal Awards are modeled after those of the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). These awards honor departments for excellence in the field of recreation and park management for the past three (3) years.
    The award is awarded to five classes of cities based on current population.
  • Class I - Cities over 250,000;
  • Class II - 100,001 - 250,000;
  • Class III - 50,001 - 100,000;
  • Class IV - 20,001 - 50,000
  • Class V - Up to 20,000.
Previous winners of the Texas gold Medal Award may not apply for a minimum of three (3) years. Texas Gold Medal winners are eligible to purchase a Gold Medal Award Lapel Pin.
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Dan Whitworth Fellow Award

This is the highest award the Society can bestow. This recipient of this award shall have been a member of TRAPS and shall have given outstanding service to the parks and recreation field for a minimum of ten (10) years and contributed to the promotion and advancement of the Texas Recreation and Park Society. One person will receive this award annually and be recognized at the annual conference.

As evidence of outstanding achievement, the nominee must meet a total of at least five (5) of the following ten (10) conditions and must be supported by no fewer than three (3) and no more than five (5) letters of endorsement.

    Leadership
  • Must have been an office holder in TRAPS.
  • Must have been an office holder in an allied organization.
Committee Work
  • Must have been chair of a TRAPS committee.
  • Must have served for three (3) years on a TRAPS committee.
  • Must have been the chair of a state, district or national committee of an allied organization.
  • Must have served for three years on a committee of an allied organization.
Recreation and Park Services
  • Must have served as a speaker, moderator, or panel member at least ten (10) times before groups in the interest of and for the promotion of parks and recreation.
  • Must have written one (1) or more articles published in a professional media.
  • Must have conducted one (1) or more research projects pertaining to parks and recreation and written a report on same.
  • Must have made an outstanding contribution to the profession not included in the above.

Young Professional Award

This award may be given annually to the professional who best meets the following criteria:

  • Must be thirty-five (35) years of age or younger during the year of nomination;
  • Must have been actively involved in TRAPS and have been a member for at least two years. List specific TRAPS contributions, committees and responsibilities;
  • Must have been responsible for exemplary advancement of the recreation and parks profession (cite specific examples) in his or her locale, or within the state; and
  • Must have made an outstanding contribution to the profession not included in the above.
  • Nomination shall be supported by no fewer than three (3) and no more than five (5) letters of endorsement.
  • Favorable consideration will be given to nominees who have met at least three (3) of the following criteria at either the state or regional level,
Leadership
  • Must have been an office holder in TRAPS.
  • Must have been an office holder in an allied organization.
Committee Work
  • Must have been chair of a TRAPS committee.
  • Must have served for three (3) years on a TRAPS committee.
  • Must have been the chair of a state, district or national committee of an allied organization.
  • Must have served for three years on a committee of an allied organization.
Recreation and Park Services
  • Must have served as a speaker, moderator, or panel member at least ten (10) times before groups in the interest of and for the promotion of parks and recreation.
  • Must have written one (1) or more articles published in a professional media.
  • Must have conducted one (1) or more research projects pertaining to parks and recreation and written a report on same

Honorary Life Membership

Honorary Life Membership may be conferred to a professional or professionals who meet the following criteria. No more than two people may receive this award in a given year.
  • Must have contributed no less than ten (10) years to the parks and recreation field.
  • Must have been actively involved in TRAPS for at least five years.
  • Must have been responsible for exemplary advancement of the recreation and parks profession on a local or state level.
  • Must have contributed to the promotion and advancement of the Texas Recreation and Park Society.
  • Nominations for Honorary Life Membership should be supported by no fewer than three (3) and no more than five (5) letters of endorsement.

Jack Ashworth Scholarship

The Jack Ashworth Scholarship was first presented at the 1987 TRAPS Conference. The Jack Ashworth Endowed Scholarship is managed by the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation.
    Candidates for the scholarship:
  • Must be enrolled in a four (4) year college or university with a degree program in a field directly related to parks and recreation. The college the candidate attends must be on the current list of colleges and universities eligible for scholarships through the Texas Recreation and Park Society. Graduate students are not eligible. (Please see list of eligible colleges and universities below.)
  • Must have at least junior status at the date of scholarship application.
  • Must have been a student member of TRAPS for at least six (6) months prior to the date of application
  • Must have a minimum of 2.5 G.P.A. overall and a 3.0 in their major field of study on a 4.0 system through the most recently completed semester.

Distinguished Legislator Award

This award honors federal, state, county or local legislators that have made an outstanding contribution to the general field of parks and recreation on a national, regional, state or local level.

    The nominee must meet the following criteria:
  • Must be (or have been) an elected official of a federal, state, county or municipal governmental body.
  • Service shall have been an outstanding contribution to the general field of recreation and parks on a national, regional, state or local level.

Educator Award

Candidates are faculty members of colleges and universities and are typically engaged in the areas of: 1) instruction, 2) research and 3) service activities are eligible for this award.

Criteria for consideration of this award are outstanding performance in at least one of the three (3) areas and competence in at least one of the other areas.

For example, a candidate who conducted research, which contributed new knowledge to the field and actively disseminated this information to parks and recreation practitioners through writing or presentations would be eligible through the categories of research and public service. Likewise, an educator who does exceptional work or classroom teaching and also does extension education would be eligible in the areas of instruction and service. Service may be defined as service to professionals or non-professionals who are interested in parks and recreation

Individual-Conservation-Service Club-Commercial Award

Award categories for which nominations shall be solicited by the Citations, Awards, and Scholarship
    Committee include:
  • Individual Award
  • Conservation Award
  • Service Club Award
  • Commercial Award
Only one (1) award may be presented in each category. However, by a three-fourths affirmative vote of the Citations, Awards and Scholarships Committee, a special award may be given to any nominee for the above categories that meets the approved criteria but is not selected for the category nominated.

Administration-Management Award

This award will recognize innovations in administration, management or supervisory actions that have responded to problems, have improved service to the public or have increased employee morale, staff development or communication between or among the public, boards, council, staff, etc.

Best Web Site Award

This award will recognize creativity or innovation in the development of web sites or home pages communicating and promoting the value of public recreation on the Internet. Entries will be judged on content, design, ease of use, and currency. The TRAPS Awards Committee will review and evaluate the web site "on-line."

Media Excellence Award

The Media Excellence award recognizes parks & recreation agencies and/or media outlets (television, radio, newspaper, etc) that provide exemplary coverage or sponsorship of park & recreation events, programs, facilities or issues.

Promotional Award

This award honors the most outstanding promotional efforts of a park, recreation and leisure agencies for the past year. This award is not intended for single event programs.

Park Design Excellence Award

    The purpose of this award is as follows:
  • To recognize each year one park development project which displays a high degree of professional design quality and recreation usage; and
  • To encourage and expand the cooperation between design professionals and parks and recreation professionals.
  • Entries will be accepted for any park design within the State of Texas. To be eligible, at least the initial representative stage of the project must be completed.

Recreation Facility Design Award

    The purpose of this award is as follows:
  • To recognize each year one recreational facility project that displays a high degree of professional design quality and recreation usage.
  • To encourage and expand the cooperation between design professionals and parks and recreation professionals.

    • Entries will be accepted for any recreational facility design within the State of Texas. To be eligible, at least the initial representative stage of the project must be completed. Examples of projects that could be considered include recreation centers, senior centers, water parks, skate parks, etc.

Maintenance Award

This award will recognize creativity or innovation in the development of unique equipment to solve a particular problem; the development or discovery of a material or chemical to solve a problem; or the development and implementation of a system or process to maintain a park, building, pool or piece of equipment more efficiently or effectively. Provide information to support the innovation, uniqueness, cost savings or other factors that set your project, process or problem solving technique apart from standard maintenance and operations processes.

Lone Star Programming Award

The Society may confer this award for innovative recreation programming to any organization that has offered for the first time, a new program to one of its client groups. There is to be only ONE nomination from each organization for this category.
    The award is awarded to five classes of cities based on current population.
  • Class I - Cities over 250,000
  • Class II - 100,001 - 250,000
  • Class III - 50,001 - 100,000
  • Class IV - 20,001 - 50,000
  • Class V - Up to 20,000.
    Entries will be judged by the following criteria:
  • Goals and objectives - What was the purpose or intent of the program and how well was it attained?
  • Participation - The acceptance of the program based upon the total number of participants the facilities or resources could accommodate.
  • Efficiency - Was the program made operational in an efficient manner in use of money and staff time?
  • Creativity/Adaptability - What elements of originality were present in your program? How did you adapt this program to meet your community needs?

Award Committee Chair

Jeff Lingo

Jeff Lingo
 Plano Parks & and Recreation Department

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