This July, get ready to tell the world, and have the world tell you, all the reasons to love parks and recreation.

This year’s Park and Recreation Month is all about encouraging the public to share and recognize the reasons parks and recreations make a difference in communities. Whether it’s making an impact in the fight against childhood obesity or bringing a community closer together — we all know local parks and recreation is where it happens!

For 2013, the “I LOVE my Parks and Recreation” is a unique take on the annual theme for the month, which has included past themes such as “Rock your Park,” and most recently, “Get Wild!”

As in years past, a toolkit of free, downloadable materials is available for you to use to make celebrating Park and Recreation Month a success in your community. The toolkit has logos, website banners, posters, customizable calendars, social media graphics and more.

This year, you’ll notice something different on the annual social media poster. The poster (and new smaller pin card) features a “fill in the blank” where your community can add what they love most about parks and recreation.  You can find a copy of the poster in this issue of the magazine.

Download and make your own posters or have stacks of the pin cards available, and encourage your community to fill in the blank. We heard from one agency that is using the poster image as the cover of their summer program guide.  They are even giving out prizes to those who bring their filled-out cover to the community recreation office!

Here are some other ideas and ways to use the materials:
• During festivals or camps, hand out the posters or pin cards and have people fill them out.
• Make posters and pin cards available at your community center, and as people fill in the blank, hang them in a visible space and create a living wall of LOVE.
• Hold contests to award the best fill-in-the-blank response.
• Make t-shirts and other fun giveaways with the logo — you could even try fill-in-the-blank t-shirts.

All of these examples offer you the opportunity to share the love on social media. Consider creating a Facebook photo gallery where people can tag their photo, tweeting out photos throughout the month or creating a dedicated Park and Recreation Month Pinterest board. Above all, don’t forget that when you share your Park and Recreation Month love on social media or your website, let us know! Email us a link at july@nrpa.org and/or tag us on social media (#ParkRecLuv). You never know — your gallery of “love” might just win you some prizes.

NRPA hopes this year’s Park and Recreation Month will be a great way for you to engage and interact with your community while offering you an opportunity to raise awareness of the many valuable benefits that come through parks and recreation.

Be sure to visit the Park and Recreation Month website to access the toolkit of materials. You can also add your agency as an official Park and Recreation Month participant and add your July activities and events. NRPA will promote the list so everyone can see what you are doing.

Check the website frequently as we’ll be updating it with the latest materials. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter (use #ParkRecLuv), and we’ll keep you up to date about all the Park and Recreation Month activities (including any contests).