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A team of three University of Georgia counseling students — An-Taria Curry, Becca Baretheson and Rachel Sloan — has received the 2011 National Recreation and Park Association’s America’s Backyard Campaign Award.

As a part of its outreach to park and recreation degree programs, the NRPA challenged students to develop a marketing plan for the new America’s Backyard – Make it Yours campaign.  Students were given the background and marketing objectives, but had to develop the remainder of the campaign.

Curry, a second-year master’s student in the College of Education’s recreation and leisure studies program worked with undergraduate students Baretheson and Sloan on their submission. They were awarded the prize which includes registration costs to attend the NRPA’s National Congress and Exposition Nov. 1-2 at the World Congress Center in Atlanta.

The purpose of the project was to: 1. Advance parks, recreation and conservation, 2. Raise public awareness of the importance of parks and recreation, and 3. Increase and diversify NRPA revenue streams. The marketing model has two types of audiences. Each audience had its own marketing plan that included messaging, benefits, and recruitment and retention strategies based on their unique position.

The students were supervised in the independent study by Gwynn Powell, an associate professor in the college’s department of counseling and human development services.