Event to help Washington Township law enforcement, residents come together
National Night Out, an event born in the western Philadelphia suburbs, has morphed into a national phenomenon.
Matt Peskin, the founding father of NNO, got his start volunteering for the Lower Merion Community Watch program, a partner of the Lower Merion Police Department. Peskin started a newsletter to showcase the community’s success. As time went on, he found that stories were becoming hard to come by so he reached out to neighboring communities. From there, he realized there were many organizations just like his.
This led to the National Association of Town Watch being founded in 1981. It would give local groups the resources to stay informed and involved in the community. It was backed by law enforcement and members of the community and had a steady growth for the next three years, according to the NNO website.
NATW introduced National Night Out in August 1984. The first NNO involved 2.5 million neighbors in 400 communities over 23 states. The humble origin of NNO was just to turn on the front porch light, talk to your neighbors and local law enforcement and maybe have a barbecue and throw a ball around. Since then, it has morphed into festivals, parades, cookouts, etc. According to the website, 38 million neighbors in 16,000 communities nationwide will take part in National Night Out this year.
This year, National Night Out will take place on Aug. 7. Washington Township will host a community event at Washington Lake Park starting at 6 p.m.
“It’s a community building campaign that promotes police and community partnerships and builds a neighborhood camaraderie” Chief of Police Pat Gurcsik said.
“We want Washington Township to be a safer, better town. We want to enhance relationships between residents and law enforcement and bring back a true sense of community to Washington Township. That’s our goal.” he added.
NNO is an opportunity for law enforcement and citizens of the community to get together under positive circumstances. Gurcsik wants residents to know that if they have any problems ranging from school safety to speeding complaints and anything in between, they can approach the officers at this event to talk about it. “We want to be approachable,” he said.
The event at Washington Lake Park will have a free cookout with officers manning the grill cooking hamburgers and hot dogs. Gurcsik said this will be the largest K-9 event of the year as there will be a demonstration with five K-9 officers. Emergency personnel will be there as well with their equipment — fire trucks, ambulances, dump trucks from the highway department, the police Gator and department motorcycle will be on display. There will be music, vendors, free giveaways and bounce houses and slides for the kids. Gurcsik added a Boeing Apache helicopter will land there and the kids can see it firsthand.
The rain date is Aug. 8 at the same location. There are still free vendor spots available. If you’re interested, contact the chief’s secretary at (856) 589–6664.
