The Town of High River Parks and Recreation team has received the Rick Curtis High Five Award from the Alberta Parks and Recreation Association.

The award follows the team’s participation in the High Five program, which focuses on the safety, well-being, and healthy development of children ages 6 to 12 in recreation and sports programs.

Jen Goeres with the provincial group says over the years Tracy Morgan and Nancy Baine have embedded High Five into their training programs.

"The assessment tools that we use in High Five are part of their assessment of programming, they've trained all their staff from front-line day camp leaders to aquatic staff to folks who work, maybe not with children and youth but have touch points with them, like arena staff and customer service staff," she says.

"When we talk about High Five we really want it to be a holistic experience, if we just train our staff who work with children that's great but we really want to have that a consistent common language between all the folks that work in an organization and the Town of High River has definitely done that and is such a shining example across Canada of how High Five can really impact children and youth from that holistic standpoint.

She says the town deserves kudos for keeping youth and seniors involved and physically active in the community.

High Five is a national certification program geared toward staff working with children 4 to 12 and older adults in recreation support programs.

Past recipients of the High Five Award include WinSport, the Calgary Police Service, City of Calgary Parks, and the Fort McKay Wellness Centre.