Kids played hopscotch, adults won cakes in cake walks and police officers and firefighters mingled with citizens at the seven National Night Out sites around Columbus Tuesday night.
National Night Out is an annual campaign to build relations between law enforcement and citizenry with block parties around the nation. Columbus held events at seven sites, increasing the number from four last year.
Lifelong Columbus resident Annie Barry has been a volunteer coordinator for National Night Out in Columbus since 1994 when former Columbus Police Chief Pete Bowen helped start the event in Columbus. She has seen a new generation spring up to get involved in the celebrations in that time.
“(Bowen)’s whole focus was to build a relationship between the community and the police,” Barry said. “We’ve got to work together.”
“For anything to work, you’ve got to make people feel a part of something,” she added. “And he surely did.”
Barry organized events at the National Night Out hosting site at Townsend Community Center. A crowd of more than 100 people — including face-painted children — ate, drank, sang and played games under her watch. Children played ring tossing games with soda bottles, drew on the street with chalk, bounced in an inflatable jump castle or played basketball. Adults listened to music and chatted. A police officer holding chalk directed a cake walk in the road.
A little after 6 p.m., Columbus Mayor Robert Smith, city councilmen and representatives from both the Columbus Police Department and Columbus Fire and Rescue arrived at Townsend, their first stop at National Night Out. They would make an appearance at each site throughout the evening.
It was Columbus Police Chief Oscar Lewis’ first National Night Out in Columbus. It’s great for the community to get together with the police and support them in their fight against crime, he said. It’s more important now than ever, he added, given the rising tension between police and the public nationally following several high-profile incidents of officers shooting citizens, as well as the recent killings of officers in Dallas, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“(It’s good to) dispel some of the misconceptions of how people feel about the police,” Lewis said. “It’s great. But this is basically about stopping crime.
“We definitely need the community’s help,” he added.
He added despite the CPD’s lower than needed number of police officers, the department’s officers are doing a good job and should be commended. The community has reached out to support them in recent months, bringing pizzas by the station and going up to officers in restaurants and other public places to thank them, Lewis said.
“That really means a lot,” he said.
Meanwhile across town, Sim Scott Park was the site of another event with jump castles for kids and food for everyone. Officials with Columbus-Lowndes Parks and Recreation reported that more than 200 people attended, and organizers gave away 190 backpacks stuffed with school supplies to children from low-income families. It’s one of the good things about National Night Out, said Mayor Robert Smith.
“It gives the kids … an opportunity to receive school supplies (they) may not be able to afford,” Smith said. “It’s a great asset to the city of Columbus, and we look forward to it every year.”
The city splits $1,500 between the sites every year, while committees from various departments, including CPD and CF&R raise money for the backpacks and school supplies, he said.
A smaller crowd of about 50 attended National Night Out at First Methodist United Church downtown, which hosted for the first time. Julie Parker and Qua Austin, who head the South Side neighborhood watch program, organized the event there.
“I think it’s a really great movement throughout the whole nation,” Parker said. “And I think it’s a really great time within our nation for these types of movements to happen.”
It increases much-needed communication in neighborhoods and helps people get to know each other and their law enforcement officers, she added.
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