GreenPlay helps heal flooded parks

LAFAYETTE — In addition to homes and businesses, September’s flood event decimated one of the Front Range’s most beloved resources: its parks and open-space systems.

In fact, in a recent Longmont Times-Call article, county Parks and Open Space Department director Ron Stewart estimated that damages to Boulder County-owned parks, trails and other open-space properties could cost upward of $25 million to repair.

Teresa Penbrooke knew that her firm, GreenPlay LLC, could help.

GreenPlay, of which Penbrooke is chief executive and founding managing member, offers planning, management and operational services to cities, counties, states and other agencies and individuals looking to improve parks, open space and recreational amenities.

Since GreenPlay has consulted on parks and recreation plans for many of the flood-affected communities including Boulder, Louisville, Longmont, Lyons and Lafayette, Penbrooke recognized that the company is uniquely positioned to aid in their repair.

To do so, GreenPlay and landscape architecture firm Design Concepts are offering 20 hours of pro bono assistance to each affected community. This assistance could include anything from determining priorities for repairing or replacing structures and trails to guiding parks administrators in submitting insurance claims or applications for Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.

“When you look at a town like Lyons, their parks are destroyed, their trails are demolished,” Penbrooke said. “We can use planning work we’ve done for them in the past to help them get back on their feet.”

Penbrooke came up with the idea for GreenPlay after years working in parks and recreation agencies made her aware of the need for full-service consulting and management services geared specifically toward the industry.

“I found myself hiring a lot of separate consultants for every project,” she said. “There were a lot of gaps between what we needed and what was being offered.”

With the goal of filling those gaps, Penbrooke founded GreenPlay in 1999. Chris Dropinski, former director for the city of Boulder’s Parks, Recreation and Mountain Parks Department, joined in 2001 as senior principal and became the second managing member the next year. Together, the two have made the women-owned business the go-to firm for parks and recreation consulting.

It’s an idea that’s paid off. Penbrooke said that last year the firm brought in approximately $1.5 million in revenue and that she expects 2013 to be a record-setting year for the business. However, Penbrooke is quick to point out that the firm never has won a contract simply because it’s women-owned: “Everything we do is based on quality,” she said. “We’d never want to get a project because of any sort of bias.”

GreenPlay originally rented physical offices in Broomfield, but in 2010 it moved its administrative headquarters to Lafayette, with most of the company’s 13 employees working out of virtual home offices, including in Kansas, New Hampshire and Florida. This increased mobility has allowed the company to expand its reach, and Penbrooke said GreenPlay now has worked on projects in all but 11 states.

“We are one of a very few firms that can offer services nationwide,” Penbrooke said. “Most others are either regional or local.”

In addition to its highly trained staff, GreenPlay also relies on other companies’ expertise, often partnering or subcontracting on projects with local architecture or landscape architecture design firms. The company has a stable of around 60 of these “alliance firms” across the nation.

GreenPlay’s local administrative staff even shares its office space in Lafayette with one of those firms: Design Concepts.

The arrangement makes sense, as the two companies not only collaborate on about 60 percent of GreenPlay’s projects but also on the nonprofit organization GP RED, which Penbrooke co-founded in 2008. GreenPlay is the founding financial sponsor of the organization, which conducts research and education for the health, recreation and land-management industries. Design Concepts and Boulder-based RRC Associates each have members on the GP RED board of directors and provide services to the nonprofit, which now is its own 501 (c) 3 organization.

It is primarily through GP RED that the companies are offering flood assistance, which also includes creation of a financial donation website for the Colorado Parks and Recreation Association and volunteer work days to encourage community involvement with restoration efforts.

Community also is at the heart of another of Penbrooke’s current projects through GP RED: the creation of a “Healthy Communities” toolkit that helps parks and recreation authorities identify factors contributing to obesity in their communities and identify the best areas to invest funds to combat the problem. The program is being beta tested in three communities: Bloomington and South Bend, Indiana, and Liberty, Missouri. Penbrooke will conduct and publish further research when she begins a Ph.D. program in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management Department at North Carolina State University in January.

“For me it’s a very exciting issue to take on,” Penbrooke said. “Sometimes parks and recreation is considered a fluff activity, but we’re really recreating the body, mind and spirit of the community on a daily basis.”

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