Pictured: Local business owners in Lexington, Kentucky, plant trees as part of Lexington's Park and Recreation Month celebration. Photo courtesy of Paul Hooper, Lexington Parks & Recreation.
Park and Recreation Month is all about celebrating our great parks, highlighting amazing programs, and shedding light on the incredible work our staff do each day to enhance their communities. Beyond that, it is an opportunity to raise awareness around local greenspaces and find ways to build relationships between the city and its park system.
In Lexington, Kentucky, we are known for our hospitality, horse racing, basketball and the bourbon industry, but anyone who has visited can tell you all about our food and drink culture. Lexington is known for punching above our weight when it comes to our culinary scene — heartwarming coffee houses, delicious fine dining, breweries that take pride in giving back to their community, and a wide variety of restaurants fusing international flavors with Kentucky charm.
Back in 2022, I was brainstorming ways we could elevate our celebration of Park and Recreation Month to the next level and take the celebration beyond our own megaphone into something the community could embrace and be proud to promote. With five Fridays in that July, we had the thought of working with a different business each week to do some sort of collaboration. With Lexington’s food scene, it made sense to explore what a collaboration with some of these businesses could look like. In my previous job, I had done some similar things on a much smaller scale, which gave me confidence that we could develop a plan to make it beneficial for all parties.
My general approach when it comes to business collaborations is to empathize with the business. It is tough to own a small business, much less a restaurant or brewery. How can we create a fun promotion that isn’t a big lift for them and benefits them as much (or even slightly more) than it does us? We decided to work with five different businesses to develop a special dish or drink that would release, for a limited time, during their week of Park and Recreation Month. We organized a plan that made sense… now how do we elevate it even further?
We decided to work with a local partner of ours, Trees Lexington. The local businesses we were working with agreed to donate a portion of the proceeds for their unique releases to Trees Lexington, who then worked with them to plant a tree in a local park near the business. Trees Lexington is a non-profit that empowers community members and advocates for a healthy and equitable tree canopy in Lexington through community tree plantings, tree giveaways and educational workshops. Working with them removed us from the financial side, with the businesses dealing directly with them. This took the campaign to a new level. Now this wasn’t just businesses working with us to get some promotion through our marketing, they were now excited to work with Trees Lexington and our city arborist to select a tree and assist in planting it that fall. They see these trees on the walk to their shops to open in the morning and as they exit after locking up for the day. It is a warm reminder to them of how they support the community and a tangible way to connect them with our parks.
Pictured: A Lexington business owner plants a tree as part of the city's Park and Recreation Month celebration. Photo courtesy of Paul Hooper.
Over the past few years, we have continued this promotion, working each year with new businesses, developing screen-printed posters with a local designer, and celebrating all month long. We have worked with thirteen different businesses, prioritizing minority-owned, and have released anything from an Oak-Aged Prickly Pear Wild Sour Beer (I bet you didn’t know Prickly Pear cactus were native to Kentucky!) to a Pistachio Blackberry Honey Cake featuring honey raised at one of our nature centers. Businesses sharing to their social media, local media coverage and community posts have led to incredible social engagement. We get tree updates from business owners excited to see growth each year and many still have their posters proudly displayed on their business walls.
Pictured: Products from Park and Recreation Month partnerships between local businesses and Lexington Parks & Recreation. Photo courtesy of Paul Hooper.
Park and recreation agencies all over do an amazing job of telling the story of parks year-round, and certainly during the month of July. While we have so many ways of working with the community to help tell that story, I recommend reaching out to small businesses in your community to see how you can get them involved. What may start as a crazy idea could turn into an annual celebration that builds trust and emotional connection with local shops and the patrons that love them.
Are you thinking about partnering with a local business for a Park and Recreation Month promotion and want to discuss tips and best practices? Email me at phooper@lexingtonky.gov or add and message me on LinkedIn! I love sharing ideas and brainstorming new ones and can’t wait to hear about what you have in store. I’m happy to pass along any advice and tell you about our latest collaborations. Comment below with ways you plan to celebrate this July.
Paul Hooper (he/him) is the Information Office Supervisor at Lexington (Kentucky) Parks & Recreation.