t was a busy four-day stretch last week in Maple Creek and the Cypress Hills as the area welcomed the Saskatchewan Parks & Recreation Association (SPRA) Conference for the first time ever.

And at the conference, it was announced that the Janie and Helen Rempel Community Garden of Swift Current was named the winner of the 2018 Parks and Open Spaces Award.

There were 147 delegates from the SPRA that attended the conference that offered a tradeshow, the annual SPRA banquet & awards gala, a preconference guided hike and goat yoga, a cowtown culinary tour, and 35 concurrent sessions with more than half of the presenters from Maple Creek and the surrounding area.

Gail Kesslar, the executive director for Cypress Hills Destination Area, said they put a lot of work into making the conference a success but it was well worth it.

"The feedback we got was really positive," she said. "We had so many people come up to us and say that they'd been attending this conference for 25 years, six years, seven years, and 11 years and that they really enjoyed themselves and it was one of the best conferences they attended."

The theme for the 2018 SPRA Conference was 'Recreation Round-up' and it displayed a wide array of different recreational activities.

"Most people think in term of recreation as just sports," Kesslar said. "We wanted to look at recreation that could be inspired by culture, music, art, photography; we wanted to look at recreation that could be inspired by horse therapy."

Maple Creek was the smallest host in the conference's history and next year it will be held in North Battleford.