Staff of James A. Garfield National Historic Site Wins Prestigious Award

The interpretive staff of received the prestigious 2012 National Park Service Midwest Region Outstanding Employee in Park Partnering Award.

This award recognizes the park’s interpreters for "creating a partnership culture in a small park," according to the nomination by site Superintendent Sherda Williams.

The nomination goes on to partnerships have increased from about ten in 2008 to over 50 today, because of this staff.

To be clear a partner is any individual or organization that works with the park to accomplish general or specific goals.

The park received a large crystal group award, which was presented via telephone by Mike Reynolds, the regional director of the National Park Service’s midwest region.

Individual awards were presented to Park Guide Joan Kapsch, Park Ranger Mary Lintern, Park Guide Scott Longert, Park Ranger Allison Powell and Chief of Interpretation and Education Todd Arrington.

"Our interpretive staff has done a fantastic job of identifying and working with partners over the past several years," Williams said.

"We have really created a culture here that encourages visionary thinking about projects, events, and programs, and one of the first questions we always consider is: who might be interested in partnering with us on this?"

"Simply put, we could not accomplish half of what we do without our many partners," added Arrington. "We may be a small park with a small staff but we never think of ourselves that way. We’ve accomplished so many big things thanks to working with generous partners."

The park has teamed with members of the Garfield family, colleges and universities, cities, local businesses and restaurants, cemeteries, nonprofit organizations, civic groups, other government agencies, Civil War history groups, numerous local school districts, professional organizations, private individuals and more.