Charlotte County Community Services received 27 national awards last month, recognizing community programs and a local park.

Twenty-five of those honors came by way of the National Association of Counties (NACo) Achievement Awards, which recognize innovative local government programs and are non-competitive.

"Everybody can do the same program year after year," Director of Community Services Tommy Scott said. "But we work really hard to try and find new things that are really creative, that we either haven't done before, or that aren't being done in other places."

Here is a complete list of programs that earned NACo recognition:

• Inspiring Youth Through Service and Leadership 
• Youth Basketball Leagues 
• Tiny Picassos 
• Study Hall 
• Stock Market Club 
• Stride and Stretch 
• Mentorship Program Project 
• Intro to Pickleball Jr. 
• Fall into Tringali: Community Reopening Celebration 
• EMPOWER HER Girls Club 
• Community Pickleball Events at Tringali Park 
• Community Inventory Project 
• Brickit Scan It Build It 
• ActiveNet Focus Group 
• ActiveNet Email Tool Utilization 
• Winter of Our Discontent 
• Train 'Em Card Club 
• Tiny Tots 
• Rock the Stacks Guitar Program 
• Monster Scientists 
• Law @ The Library Program 
• Memory Café 
• In the Loop 
• Bicycle Safety Day 
• Advice for Your Device 

A program Scott used as an example was Memory Café, where residents experiencing memory and cognitive issues provide oral histories about growing up in Charlotte County.

"They tell us about growing up here, how long they've been here, their family, their roots, all of that," Scott said. "We've turned those into a series that's available online. We're just trying to have this living document of the history of Charlotte County through the eyes of our residents."

In addition to the NACo awards, two National Association of County Park and Recreation Officials (NACPRO) honors were given to the county. Lake Betty Park in Port Charlotte earned NACPRO's Developed Recreation Parks & Facilities Class II award for its amenities, which includes a ninja warrior course, and its accessibility.

The County's Community Inventory Project also won NACPRO's Planning Initiative Award, in which programs provided by the county government, nonprofits, private entities and educational institutions were identified and documented.

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