National Night Out unites neighborhoods, law enforcement
For many years, Texas has designated the first Tuesday in October as a time for enhancing the relationship between neighborhoods and law enforcement.
Celebrated in thousands of communities across the nation, National Night Out promotes police-community partnership and neighborhood camaraderie making our neighborhoods safer, better places to live. Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty has been a participant for many years with agents doing a host of different activities to encourage neighbor’s involvement.
Dee Dee Guggenheim Howes hosted her neighbors in her home, engaging a police officer to speak about the area. Guggenheim Howes said, “Officer Pate, security reminders and good neighbors made for a successful National Night Out with a good turnout in the River Oaks area.”
The involvement varies from enjoying potluck and pizza together to giving away neighborhood themed T-shirts, as Lori Riberi of Camp Logan chose to do. Nancy Stow of Bellaire hosted her first NNO event, which proved to be a success.
Mike Spear, a Hyde Park resident, has been involved many years and said, “National Night Out has become a huge event for Hyde Park Civic Association and I’m so happy to be a part of it. We had our best turnout ever.”
Additional communities where agents participated were Briargrove Park, Ayrshire, League City and Galveston. The Memorial Villages are well known for their support of this annual event. One of MTSIR’s signature contributions is snow cones, and the request for “all flavors, please” is understood. National Night Out is a perfect platform for the agents to share the Safe Child ID Kits.
The addition of a Pet Safety Decal was well received as it notifies first responders there is a pet on site.
Terri Lemons, community outreach manager for MTSIR, said, “while I attend countless events, this stands out as one of my favorites. It gives us the chance to reach out to our neighbors in the community with which we work, and have fun, but also provide safety tools at the same time. It is always a joy to work with Memorial Villages Police Department.”