Palluzzi To Get State Parks & Rec Distinguished Service Award

BRANFORD, CT — Town parks & recreation director Alex Palluzzi, Jr. is set to receive the most prestigious award that the Connecticut Recreation & Parks Association bestows, the association's Distinguished Service Award.

For the award, a nominee has had to make outstanding contributions, over a significant number of years, to the recreation, and/or parks field including: outstanding leadership; committee work on a state or national level; outstanding service as a professional worker; research; promoting the profession; and outstanding development of equipment, layout or design.

Palluzzi, a Branford native, has been at the helm of parks & rec for 26 years, making him the longest serving active department head in the town.

Palluzzi has 45 years of professional experience in the parks and recreation field, and has been involved with the Branford parks for 56 consecutive years. Palluzzi holds degrees from a host of colleges and universities, including, South Central Community College, Albertus Magnus College, and Southern Connecticut State University, where he holds a Master Of Science Degree in Recreation & Leisure Studies in Recreation Administration, and he has completed doctoral work in Education Leadership. Palluzzi has been an adjunct professor at SCSU in the Department of Recreation, Tourism, and Sports Management Programs for 16 years teaching undergraduate and graduate courses.

Past president of the Connecticut Recreation and Park Association, he is also a member of the Connecticut, New England, American, and National parks and recreation associations. He has been active, and has served in leadership roles as well as hosting and presenting at numerous conferences, is a leader in the field of organic turf management and is an advocate of pesticide free athletic playing fields and parks & recreation areas.

Palluzzi said he is most proud of serving on the building committee for the 12.15 Joe Trapasso Community House in honor of the WWII Veterans which just opened this fall which will serve both Parks & Recreation and the Canoe Brook Center for all ages.

Married to Karen Heatley Palluzzi, a pre-K paraprofessional at Murphy School, the couple have two children: Megan, a Branford High School and CCSU graduate, and currently the program manager at Yale University Conferences & Events, as well as coach of both dance teams at Branford High School and CCSU; and Dylan a Branford High School grad who holds a bachelor of science degree from Southern Connecticut State University in Sports Management and is outdoor operations manager at the TPC Golf Course in Cromwell Connecticut and BHS freshman baseball coach, who was also recently named the boys basketball coach at Walsh Intermediate School.

Palluzzi will receive the award at the 59th annual state conference at the Mohegan Sun Convention Center on Tuesday, May 26.