At a gala banquet in the Indiana Roof Ballroom, several hundred hopefuls gathered for dinner and the hope that they would win at the competitive Monumental Affair Awards. This year, a unique nature park with truly "grass roots" captured the attention of the Mayor's Neighborhood Award judges.

Applications in the category for the Mayor's Neighborhood Award are judged by The Indianapolis Coalition for Neighborhood Development. Judging criteria includes projects in which residents work together as volunteers to improve the aesthetics of their neighborhoods; and Projects that encourage individual and community responsibility for beautification and neighborhood quality.

The Mayor's Neighborhood Achievement Award was presented to Daubenspeck Community Nature Park, a community volunteer effort to create a nature park at 8900 Ditch Rd. More than 10,000 volunteer hours went into their kick off event on September 7, 2006, which gave the property a whole new look and use. The Home Depot provided much of the materials and volunteers for the event, along with other corporate, non-profit, and individual contributions of resources and volunteers. Park organizers/volunteers continue to improve the space and will plant more than 700 trees this fall.

Lori Schlabach, Board President for Metropolitan School District of
Washington Township, and Angela Mansfield, City-County Councilor/DCNP Board Member, received the awards on behalf of the park. DCNP Board members Krystal Slivinski, Greg Gerke, and Deb Ellman attended, as well former/founding board member Ron Watson.

Non-profit Keep Indianapolis Beautiful organizes the event each year with help from corporate underwriters. Other winners in the Mayor's Award category were: Honor – Binford Gateway Beautification Project, Binford Redevelopment & Growth (BRAG) Group; and Merit – McCord Park, Watson McCord Neighborhood Association.