4 Top Honors Awarded To Lake County Forest Preserves

WAUKEGAN, IL — Two statewide park district associations recently honored the Lake County Forest Preserves with awards for excellence in communications and design.

The Illinois Park and Recreation Association and the Illinois Association of Park Districts announced four awards for the Lake County district last month at the IPRA-IAPD Soaring to New Heights Conference in Chicago.

“We are elated to be honored with these prestigious accolades,” said Angelo Kyle, president of the Lake County Forest Preserves. “The recognition emphasizes our team’s passion and dedication to strengthening connections with the public, a commitment that ranks high among our priorities."

The IPRA-IAPD conference is the largest state park and recreation conference in the nation, with more than 45 agencies competed for awards in 13 categories.

Boasting about 350 park districts — most of which overlap with municipalities and other governmental entities — Illinois has the most independent park district agencies in the nation.

A panel of judges assessed the entries based on creativity, design, organization, message and cohesiveness, and described the Lake County offerings as "beautiful, balanced, creative, recognizable and memorable," according to according to forest preserve officials.

The Lake County Forest Preserves were honored with second place in the category of Overall Agency Showcase, which includes the entirety of the print, digital and social media materials submitted by the park district.

The local forest preserve, the second-largest in Illinois, took home 1st place in the category of Brochure for its free quarterly magazine, Horizons, which features news about conservation, wildlife, trails, recreation, nature and history education.

“Our team's talent and expertise are evident in every issue," said Jeanna Martinucci, communications and design manager and the magazine's editor and designer. "It's deeply rewarding to receive this recognition."

It also 2nd place in the Marketing Campaign category for its 25 anniversary of Hike Lake County, and it won 3rd place in the category of Social Media Campaign for its promotion of the beer garden at Independence Grove.

According to staff, the beer garden promotion campaign reached more than 403,000 people, resulting in website traffic nearly doubling over the prior year.