Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest co-owner Gary Quigley displays awards the campground has received. This year the business won the Medium Park of the Year from the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds as well as the Plan-It Green Award.

Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest in Harrisville claimed two major awards this year, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Kozy Rest earned Medium Park of the Year from the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, its fifth in 10 years, as well as the Plan-It Green Award in the small/medium category for the third year in a row.

“Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest has consistently been one of the nation's premier parks and continues to stand out from the crowd in 2020,” said an association news release.

The association's Park of the Year Awards are presented to member-parks that deliver an “extraordinary guest experience” and grade the competitors on areas of operations, professionalism, marketing, customer service and industry involvement.

“It's the largest single award you can be presented with in the industry. We've now won it five times in the last 10 years, so that's a great honor,” said Kozy Rest owner Gary Quigley.

The Plan-It Green contestants are also graded, but in areas that focus on environmental impacts and reducing a park's carbon footprint.

“We solar heat the swimming pool. We have energy efficient appliances in all our buildings and cabins,” Quigley said. “We have motion sensor lighting, so they go on and off automatically when people go in and out.”

Quigley said one of the latest additions to its green-friendly arsenal was a new program called the Junior Rangers, which taught children multiple ways they could camp while having as little an impact on the environment as possible.

Some of the lessons were on picking up trash, not disturbing wildlife and setting up camp with minimal impact.

“This year, this is one of the cooler things we did,” Quigley said.

While the park may have been recognized for their offerings, Quigley attributed a great deal of credit to his customers and employees.

Quigley said the customers responded to the pandemic-friendly atmosphere and adjustments by keeping the place busy. He said he saw some customers who have been coming to the park since it opened 21 years ago, and he saw some new faces too.

“Forty percent of our business was new customers this year, and we didn't lose any of our returning customers,” Quigley said.

Quigley said a hard-working staff of about 50 people, mostly made up of seasonal workers, kept the park running during a year of great uncertainty. He said even with COVID-19 creating new obstacles, his employees navigated and adapted to keep the business moving through the pandemic.

He said this year's awards would not have been possible without an all-around team effort.

“They genuinely care. Everyone wanted to come back to work,” Quigley said. “The staff was 100 percent buy-in for everything they had to do for people to have that family experience.”