PROFILE 2025: Nathan Anderson named 2025 Distinguished Citizen
Published 1:37 am Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Nathan Anderson at Art Park in downtown Cullman, Saturday, March 22. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
Amy Wood taps taps the keg at the 2024 Oktoberfest opening ceremonies. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
Cullman Parks and Recreation Director Nathan Anderson looks at a section of Connected Park’s Explorer Dome.
The Christkindlmarkt The Ferris Wheel and Weihnachtspyramide is lit up Nov. 29. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
A contestant competes in the strawberry pie eating contest during the 2024 Alabama Strawberry Festival. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
WildWater, seen in July 2022, has received the World Waterpark Association’s Leading Edge Award.
Skaters traverse Skate Depot on opening day. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
Just past mile marker 7 along the Duck River Trail. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times
“A 20-year-old can play with a 70-year-old. I’m almost 70 and can play a competitive game, whereas with tennis you couldn’t do that,” said Kevin Howard after a match at the Ingle Park pickleball courts.
Lilly Praytor takes a ride on one of the new features in the Connected Playground during the park's dedication in 2018.
Nathan Anderson’s ‘drive and creativity’ has grown Cullman parks, events to new heights.
Residents in Cullman County would be hard-pressed to find an aspect of their lives which remains untouched by the efforts and contributions of Cullman Parks, Recreation and Sports Tourism. Between the nationally recognized local festivals, community sports leagues, health and wellness amenities, even the recruitment of local businesses and industries, the department has grown into a massive operation and largely under the leadership of its current director. Which is why The Cullman Times has chosen Nathan Anderson as its 2025 Distinguished Citizen.
Anderson had already been contributing to the community as the technology director for Cullman City Schools and helping to launch the Cullman Downtown Merchants Association — for which he also served as president — before being named CPRST director in 2013. However, it is the work he has done since, that has increased the quality of life for residents and transformed the local landscape to establish Cullman County as a nationally known hub for North Alabama tourism.
“I am honored to serve as the new CPRST director. The future is bright,” Anderson said in 2013 shortly after receiving the nomination. “I am eager to begin, and look forward to working with city leaders to continue to enhance Cullman City Parks and Recreation to meet the needs of our community.”
At the time, the department included Heritage Park, the Field of Miracles and the Cullman Wellness and Aquatic Center. The department continues to maintain those facilities, but has expanded its umbrella to include more than a dozen additional community parks, two 18-hole golf courses at Cross Creek and Terri Pines, outdoor hiking areas at Hurricane Creek Park and the Duck River Reservoir, a municipal skate park, the Palamino RV resort, the Cullman County Museum, the Cullman Community Theater group and the award winning WildWater water park.
Anderson said a brief hiatus between 2019 and 2021 during which he spent in Nashville, Tennessee directing entertainment logistics as the CEO for 46/Entertainment gave him the confidence he needed to grow the city’s annual festivals into what has now become destination events throughout the region and even across the country.
“I think that experience in Nashville gave me the confidence in planning those types of events. You have to be able to know what you are worth in order to take those risks with booking the artists and marketing those events to grow them,” Anderson said.
Each of the city’s three largest annual festivals — the Strawberry Festival, Oktoberfest and Christkindlmarkt — shattered previous attendance records and brought a combined total of nearly half a million visitors to the area.
Cullman Economic Development director Dale Greer said these events, as well as the department’s commitment to recreational offerings, has been key in attracting business and industry investors to the area.
“Nathan and his team have excelled at creating a wide variety of organized sports, leisure activities and festivals that make Cullman a more livable community,” Greer said. “Nathan is visionary. He takes an idea for a festival, event or activity and turns it into reality. Every community could use a person with the drive and creativity of Nathan Anderson.”
In 2023, Gov. Kay Ivey approved legislation to declare Cullman’s Strawberry Festival as a statewide event. The event had already grown to include live performances from nationally recognized music artists and easily attracted as many as 25,000 visitors. But under the new moniker of The Alabama Strawberry Festival, and with the addition of one extra day of festivities, nearly 50,000 visitors attended the festival in 2024.
Oktoberfest saw similar numbers and the month-long Christkindlmarkt brought more than 200,000 visitors to the Cullman area in 2024.
“Nathan has been an invaluable asset to the city of Cullman, and under his leadership, CPRST has experienced remarkable growth and success,” Cullman Mayor Woody Jacobs told The Times.
While Anderson recognized the value and importance these events have had in marketing the Cullman Area, he maintained an astute devotion to the core of the department’s mission, which is the development of, and maintaining, the community parks used by residents every day.
“It is really about increasing the quality of life. These outdoor, green spaces touch all aspect’s of a person’s life,” Anderson said.
Nearly every community park in the city of Cullman has undergone renovations in recent years, including a new splash pad and pickleball courts at Nesmith Park, new playground equipment and pickleball courts and Ingle Park and an upcoming renovation of East Side Park which will include new playground equipment, a dog park and yes … pickleball courts.
But for Anderson, he said his favorite park is Art Park which, in his mind, acted as a catalyst of sorts for the work he is doing now.
“[My favorite] has to be Art Park. I mean this was kind of where it all started, where we really started to develop this connected identity with all the parks. When we were planning this park I really wanted something that celebrated the arts and our local artists here in Cullman,” Anderson said.
CPRST is continuing that investment into the local arts with the recent purchase of First United Pentecostal Church located in downtown Cullman which will be renovated and converted into a home for the Cullman Community Theater group.
“We’ve got a lot of really talented performing artists of all kinds and I’m just excited to have a home for them,” Anderson said. “It’s great for us to embrace the arts and move them forward.”
More than anything, Anderson said he hoped to leave a legacy for future generations of Cullman natives to enjoy, and that they choose to remain in Cullman to enjoy those contributions.
“I think one of the first times that I realized we had really changed the landscape was when we asked members of the Cullman Youth Leadership what the reasons were that they might want to leave Cullman one day and most of them asked ‘Why would we want to leave,’ That’s what I would like my legacy to be. I want to my kids and my grandkids to be able to enjoy this place for years to come,” Anderson said.
