City celebrates ‘National Night Out’ on Tuesday
WOONSOCKET – A longstanding tradition in community policing gets under way again on Tuesday when the Woonsocket Police Department celebrates National Night Out at River Island Park.
The family-oriented, festivallike event is an opportunity for residents to mingle with police officers and personnel from a smorgasbord of community-improvement agencies, from the Woonsocket Prevention Coalition to Community Care Alliance.
The event, from 4-6 p.m. will also feature free Taco Bell treats, toy giveaways and bicycle raffles, entertainment from Bobo the Clown, a disc jockey and a demonstration of the WPD’s K-9 unit, according to Lt. Tom Calouro.
“It’s nice to be able to come together with the community under positive circumstances,” he says. “We don’t always get a call when there’s steak on the grill, but this is an opportunity for us to enhance our relationships with our neighbors and promote a true sense of community.”
This year’s installment of National Night out will feature a special outreach to senior citizens, according to Calouro. Detective Lt. George McMann, the police department’s senior liaison, will be available to answer questions, along with representatives of the Woonsocket Senior Center.
Assistant Director of Harris Public Library Margaret McNulty will also be on hand to record the personal stories of city residents for a grant-funded project aimed at improving the quality of life in the city. The library has embarked on assembling an encyclopedia’s worth of interviews from city residents, focusing on their best memories, things they find challenging about living in the city and what they would do to improve the situation in the future.
Anyone who wants to contribute should look for radio station WOON (AM-1240) call let- ters. The station is letting McNulty use its “media truck” to record the interviews, according to Calouro.
The WPD is just one of many area law enforcement agencies marking National Night Out, including those serving Pawtucket, Lincoln, Central Falls– and they’re among thousands nationwide who will be doing the same on the first Tuesday in August.
Founded in 1984 by the National Association of Town Watch, National Night Out started out big and has just gotten, well, gargantuan. The organization says some 2.5 million in 400 communities across the country celebrated the first National Night Out, but the footprint has grown steadily over the years, now reaching parts of Canada, all the U.S. territories and American military bases around the world.
“Today, 38 million neighbors in 16,000 communities across the nation take part in National Night Out,” NATW says. “Neighborhoods across the nation began to host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and various other community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, visits from emergency personnel, exhibits and much, much more.”