For the second time in two years, Dr. Saundra Bryn has received the Chairman’s Award from the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds. The award is presented in recognition of individuals who go above and beyond the call of duty to improve the outdoor hospitality industry, according to the association. Bryn also received the ARVC Foundation’s Education Award in recognition of her years of volunteer efforts helping to develop curriculum and educational programing for campground, RV park and resort operators across the country.
“It was wonderful to receive these awards and recognition by the outdoor hospitality industry,” said Bryn, a Phoenix, Ariz., resident who previously was co-owner and manager of Desert’s Edge RV Park, an award-winning snowbird destination that was named one of the top 10 urban RV parks in America in 2014 by USA Today.
Bryn received her first Chairman’s Award in November of 2016, just two weeks after ARVC received notification that it had been accredited by the International Association of Continuing Education and Training (IACET). Bryn, who joined ARVC’s Education Committee in 2007, and Barb Youmans, ARVC’s senior education director and executive director of the ARVC Foundation, had spent six years working to refine the education program to meet IACET standards and to promote IACET standards as a benchmark for quality program delivery.
The 2018 and 2016 ARVC Chairman’s Awards and the 2018 ARVC Foundation Education Award are the latest awards Bryn has received from the campground industry. In early 2016, she received the Jack Denton Award from the Arizona Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.
The award is named in honor of Jack Denton, a campground and RV park industry pioneer who founded the Flagstaff KOA and helped establish the precursor of Arizona ARVC, the Arizona Campground Owners Association, as well as the national organization that later became the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.