National Night Out will be celebrated at five Kenosha locations from 5 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017.
The locations are: The Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha, 1330 52nd St.; Wesley United Methodist Church, 4600 60th St.; Lincoln Park, 6900 18th Ave.; Lord of Life Church, 5601 Washington Road; and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 8760 37th Ave.
Each location will feature food, prizes and entertainment. There will also be community resource tables with information from agencies including the Kenosha Unified School District, the Racine-Kenosha Community Action Agency, the Kenosha County Division of Health, Holiday House, the Kenosha Community Health Center and many more.
Introduced nationally in 1984, National Night Out is an effort to heighten awareness of and strengthen participation in local anticrime efforts. The events are a great opportunity to promote police-community partnerships, crime and gang prevention and neighborhood camaraderie.
“Bringing neighbors together is the greatest deterrent to gang activity,” said Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser. “National Night Out is a great opportunity for neighbors to meet neighbors, and to become friends. It also helps to build community partnerships between law enforcement, other agencies and the public.”
As part of the county’s 2009 gang-prevention plan, one National Night Out event was planned at McKinley Elementary School. More than 300 neighbors participated. The event eventually grew to three locations at local elementary schools before the Boys & Girls Club became the central location for the county’s event in 2013. More than 500 neighbors attended the festivities there last year.
This year’s free events are being sponsored by Festival Foods, Meijer, Target, Peace on the Streets Inc., the Kenosha Police Department and Community Impact Programs. In addition, the City of Kenosha and Kenosha County are sponsors of the Boys & Girls Club and Lincoln Park events.
All children must be accompanied by an adult to participate in the activities, advised Donna Rhodes, gang intervention supervisor for the Kenosha County Division of Children and Family Services.