Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association News Release
For Immediate Release
March 3, 2025
Contact: Judy Edwards
Communications Manager
808-747-6572
(fax) 808-985-7333
Hawaiʻi-based National Parks Nonprofit Partner Brings Home Innovative Product of the Year Award
The Public Lands Alliance (PLA) has announced the recipients of its 2025 Partnership Awards, which celebrate the best in public lands partnerships, at the annual PLA Convention and Annual Trade Show. These awards honor leading-edge achievements in the preservation of public lands and the enrichment of the visitor experience.
Innovative Product Award
Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association (HPPA)
The innovative product award recognizes an interpretive product of any medium created in partnership by a nonprofit organization or land management agency that embodies a path-breaking approach to achieve a public lands mission.
• Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association 3D Kits of 10 Hawaiʻi Native Species and a Polynesian Voyaging Canoe, in partnership with Little and Wood.
HPPA Creative Services Director Kim Olsen says, Developed in collaboration with Little and Wood, this collection goes beyond a traditional educational item—it offers a truly innovative experience. With each 3D kit, people of all ages get the opportunity to build and engage with unique species and a Polynesian canoe, fostering a deeper, more meaningful, and lasting connection.
HPPA Executive Director Mel Boehl adds, Our national park store products and interpretative information are consistently recognized by the National Park Service (NPS) leadership and PLA as being among the best. It is a joy to see how well the Little and Wood kits are being received by park visitors.
Find these Little and Wood 3D kits at Hawaiʻi national parks visitor center park stores and online at: https://shop.hawaiipacificparks.org/collections/games-and-activities
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HPPA is the nonprofit partner of seven national park sites in Hawaiʻi and American Samoa. Proceeds from our visitor center park stores and online shop have contributed over $32 million in support to parks since 1933.
www.hawaiipacificparks.org
The Public Lands Alliance (PLA) protects America's public lands by supporting and empowering the local, nonprofit partner organizations dedicated to their conservation. Its members are nonprofit organizations that have a formal partnership with a land management agency to support parks, forests, wildlife refuges, conservation areas, and other public lands sites. PLA members serve more than 675 public lands sites nationwide in cooperation with their land management agency partners, and they raise $250 million annually to support those lands.
https://www.publiclandsalliance.org/home
