San Francisco Rec and Park honors staff with William Hammond Hall Awards
Twelve Rec and Park workers were honored for keeping San Francisco parks running, from gardeners to recreation staff. The awards also marked a return after pandemic shutdowns.
San Francisco Recreation and Park Department staff were honored earlier this week with the William Hammond Hall Awards, and Mayor Daniel Lurie joined commission members and union leaders at the ceremony. The annual awards recognize employees who show exceptional dedication to their craft, from gardeners to recreation staff.
A department social post dated Aug. 12, 2025 said 12 people received the award that year, and a City and County of San Francisco transcript shows 12 recipients at the 14th Annual William Hammond Hall Award Ceremony on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. That 2022 gathering came after COVID shutdowns disrupted the previous year, giving the ceremony a return-to-form feel after the city had spent a year away from its usual public celebrations.
Rec & Park's Who We Are materials put the work in plain view. The department shows a gardener in action, a recreation employee painting a boy's face and another demonstrating shot put to a little girl, a snapshot of the daily labor that keeps San Francisco's park system more than a collection of fields and lawns. Those jobs determine whether a playground is ready, a program is staffed and a park feels cared for when families arrive.
The awards have become a steady way for city leaders to single out that work. A Threads post from the department said the 12 recipients were celebrated by Mayor London Breed, Chief of Staff Sean Elsbernd, City Administrator Carmen Chu, commissioners, colleagues and union leaders, underscoring how much of San Francisco's daily park experience depends on workers whose names rarely make headlines.
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