WEATHERING THE STORM
Community Night goes on: Skies clear after downpour Police sponsor event: Car show, dunk tank, displays
SOUDERTON >> Shortly before the start of this year’s Aug. 10 Souderton Police Department Community Night, a downpour hit, then ended.
About 75 vehicles for the car show were already there when the rain came, Jim Hunsberger, president of East Penn Modifiers, the club that organized the car show, said.
Some left, but the majority remained.
“We toughed it out and we stayed and now it’s nice, at least for awhile,” Hunsberger said.
Proceeds from the car show go to the Indian Valley-North Penn Valley Boys & Girls Club and the Bean Bag food program, he said.
“We’re just glad everybody came out to support the causes,” Hunsberger said.
Once again this year, lifeguards from Souderton Community Pool were in the Community Night dunk tank, Dan Malley, one of the pool managers, said.
“We give the kids a chance to dunk some lifeguards,” he said. “It’s a good time.”
Souderton Police Ofc. Jeff Lukens also took a turn in the dunk tank.
“This is my eighth year in the dunk tank,” he said. “I volunteer for it every year.”
Asked how many times he’d been dunked that night, he said he didn’t know.
“A lot,” Lukens said. “More than I can count.”
The night is “all about the community,” he said.
Between 12 and 18 police departments and other emergency
responders had displays at Community Night, Souderton Police Detective Joseph Rudner said.
“We have a lot of different community service organizations,” he said.
That included Laurel House, Sellersville Moose, Hope 21, Keystone Opportunity Center, SoudertonTelford Rotary and autism speaker and advocate Ben Hartranft.
“It’s a chance for the different service organizations to promote who they are, what they do and maybe hopefully get some volunteers,” Rudner said.
The Sellersville Moose was offering child fingerprinting, he said.
“Records are given to the parents on a flash drive so if anything would ever happen to the child, everything that they need — fingerprints, photographs, a video — it’s all there, they just give it to the police and it’s in a format that can be used in an Amber Alert,” Rudner said.
Amber Alerts are emergency messages issued by law enforcement when a child has been abducted and is believed to be in imminent danger.
Several raffles were held throughout the evening.
“I’m gonna say we have in the area of at least 50 prizes, maybe more,” Rudner said.
The Souderton Police Community Night is held each year in Souderton Community Park.
“It’s another thing for the community to get to know the police department and what we do,” Rudner said, “and also the different first responders and the service clubs.”