National Night Out is back and stronger than ever

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Organizers are excited about the return of National Night Out to Grand Island.

The event will be held from 5:30-8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5, at Town Hall and the surrounding Town Commons.

Event Chair Rhonda Diehl said, “The purpose of it is to build community between first responders and the community, itself – for building that relationship.”

She said it’s an event at which children can learn that first responders are helpers in our community.

Diehl, administrative assistant to Supervisor Peter Marston, said it has been four years since the town took part in the National Night Out.

“This year, since we were bringing it back, we thought we wanted to build all our communities relationships, so we opened it up to any businesses that would like to participate, so that they can get to know their neighbors, as well,” Diehl said.

“We’re a small town and we have some new businesses – small bakers and farmers – all types.”

Diehl also said service organizations such as Kiwanis, Rotary and Zonta, as well as town advisory boards, plan to be represented at the event for outreach and recruitment.

“We have a new parks, recreation and senior services master plan that’s being produced. They’re doing a big survey for what our community would like to see with recreation and senior services,” she said.

The survey can be accessed online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GrandIslandParksSurvey

Council member Jose Garcia is a member of the committee that has been working to bring National Night Out back to Grand Island. He said first responder groups will have recruitment tables where community members can find out more about careers in law enforcement and consider joining up.

In the case of Customs and Border Protection marine operations, “There will be the marine operations, which will have their interceptor boat,” Garcia said. “Then there will be Border Patrol river marine operations … which will have smaller boats that can go into the canal and to the smaller areas. Additionally, they are going to bring their special response team.”

He said the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and the Grand Island Police Department will have child ID stations where, with parental consent, they can document information on their child.

“As far as fun goes, we’re going to have a dunk tank. I have volunteered to be one of the dunkees,” Garcia said. “We’re still looking for more people that would like to participate. All of the proceeds will be going to the Neighbors Foundation.”

He said, “It’s going to be a great opportunity for people to touch, feel and understand some of the lifesaving equipment that our fire department and our local law enforcement and first responders use on a daily basis to keep our community protected – and maybe get an idea that this might be something they might want to do in the future.”

 “It’s just going to be a really good time and to reintroduce our first responders to people,” Garcia said. “These are our heroes who are there to truly help us, and they can speak to these people and see that they’re human beings.”

He added, “I’m very excited to be a part of this. This is just a great community event to have people come around.”

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT

The lineup of events offered through National Night Out’s first responders includes:

√ Grand Island Police Department – EZ ChildID cards

√ Grand Island Fire Co. Fire truck

√ Customs and Border Protection marine operations

√ Grand Island snow plow truck

√ Erie County Sheriff’s horses and SWAT

√ NYS Troopers drone unit

√ Celebrity dunk tank

√ Face painting, balloon artist and sidewalk chalk fun

√ Costume contest: Children can dress as their favorite first responder. A costume parade will take place at 6:30 p.m.

√ Live music, food trucks – and much more