Northeast region.

Environmentalists, business leaders and state and local officials in New Jersey are working together to turn Hackensack Meadowlands from a polluted eyesore into ecological preserve covering 8,400 acres of protected wetlands, wildlife refuges, hiking trails, playing fields and even a golf course or two. In February, a Virginia-based developer specializing in mega malls agreed to take a planned retail and entertainment complex elsewhere, which opened the space for future park planning.

Parks and recreation camps are benefiting from NRPA's partnership with the Women's National Basketball Association. In July, the Washington Mystics had a special camp game to support summer recreation camps in the Washington, D.C. area. For more information on NRPA and the WNBA partnership and how you can get involved, contact [e-mail].

The New Jersey Recreation and Park Association recently presented the Michael B. Berman Award for Administrative Excellence to Jerry Collincini, director of parks and recreation of Manalapan Township. The NJRPA Supervisor of the Year Award was presented to Dr. Fran Stavola-Daly, CTRS, CPRP, of Kean University. Dr. Stavola-Daly is the president-elect of the National Therapeutic Recreation Society.

Diane Sills was awarded the Connie Romanello Lifetime Volunteer Award at the 2003 Maryland Recreation and Park Association conference. Sills is an NRPA Trustee, past president of the NRPA Citizen-Board Member Branch and president of the South Laurel Recreation Council, Inc.

Dr. Arthur Mittelstaedt, Jr., past president of NRPA's Commercial Recreation and Tourism Section, received the New York State Recreation and Park Society Distinguished Service Award at the 2003 conference in Long Island. Mittelstaedt is volunteer executive director of Recreation and Safety Institute, and serves as the SPRE liaison to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council. Toms White, administrative officer at the City of Syracuse Parks and Recreation Department, was awarded the NYS-RPS Outstanding Service Award.

Debbra Ann Voorhees, CPRP, director of recreation of Eatontown, N.J., was recently elected president of the New Jersey Recreation and Park Association. Voorhees began her career in recreation 22 years ago, with her first job at Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation, while she was attending Virginia Wesleyan College. The following year, she transferred to Trenton State College (now known as the College of New Jersey), where she worked throughout her college career as the supervisor of the school's recreation and aquatics centers. Aside from her current work in Eatontown, Voorhees has also worked as a recreation supervisor for Marlboro Township. She earned her master of administrative science degree from Farleigh Dickinson University in 1999. She has chaired many committees for NJRPA and held executive office positions on the Administrative Council/Board of Trustees. In 1993, she received the NJRPA President's Service Award.