Lisa Thompson doesn’t usually want her children keeping secrets from her. But the one all three recently kept was OK, the Wiscasset Parks and Recreation director said.

“It was a good secret,” she said in Friday’s interview in the Wiscasset Community Center lobby.

At the Samoset March 18, she entered the ballroom for dinner  at the Maine Recreation & Park Association conference she attends each year. And there they were: daughters Annie Brewer, 24, and Emma Bingham, 13, and son Kevin Brewer, 21, at the table reserved for the family of the William V. Haskell Distinguished Professional Award winner.

A table full of WCC staff members were also there.

“It came as a complete surprise,” Thompson, 53, said of seeing them all and realizing she had won.  “I was shocked ... I cried a little bit. I've worked in this field for 20 years, so I've seen people get this (award), year after year. ”

The first year she went to the conference, her college professor got it.  “And I thought that might be something I’d want to aspire to, maybe someday get this award. So it was nice to come full circle.”

What does a self-described planner do when she learns at dinner, she needs to give a speech? “I took some scrap paper at the table during dinner and I wrote down some notes of some things I wanted to make sure I said.” That included giving credit to her professors and mentors. Maine’s recreation professionals all know one another and she likes to bounce ideas off them, she said.

“I enjoy the friendships that I've built (and) I'm at the point in my career when I can mentor younger professionals in the field, and I really like that, too.”

Colleague Jen DeRice, Standish’s recreation director,  nominated her for the award. The two worked together in South Portland and have known each other about 15 years. According to materials Thompson provided, the award named for a longtime Presque Isle recreation director reflects “outstanding performance on a community level, through innovative programming, facility development and civic involvement.”

Thompson was impressed her children had kept quiet for weeks about the award. “They didn’t say a word ... They’re usually like open books with me,” she added, smiling.

Thompson is a past winner of the association’s young professional award.