National Night Out Returns To Davidson In 2021: Event Details

DAVIDSON, NC — National Night Out 2021 events in Davidson Aug. 3 are part of a nationwide push to strengthen police and community relations.

The nationwide event “promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer,” according to the National Association of Town Watch, the organization that founded the annual early August event in 1984.

On Tuesday, Aug. 3, officers from Davidson Police Department are hosting an event at Roosevelt Wilson Park on Griffin Street from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.

"This year’s event will offer hamburgers and hot dogs, along with sides and an ice cream truck. There will be games (a bounce house, dunk tank, and scavenger hunt) and music performed by Mayor Rusty Knox, the Bailey Sweet River Band, Multiply Church- Lake Norman, and more," the Town of Davidson said in a statement.

“The local NNO event was started in 2006 at the request of and with the support of the Davidson African-American Coalition," said Davidson Police Chief Penny Dunn. "The vision of this organization was for all residents to come together, break bread, and find common ground. Our community is stronger and better for their efforts thirteen years ago.”

Since 1984, communities across the country have held National Night Out events on the first Tuesday of August. Block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and other community events have been popular ways to celebrate the outreach-focused event.

More than 2 million Americans took part in the first National Night Out. Now, the event is celebrated in more than 16,000 communities across all 50 states, according to the National Association of Town Watch.

Many National Night Out events are back in 2021 after widespread cancellations last summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For example, businesses in Marple Township, Pennsylvania, are donating goods to be used during a night of music, games and demonstrations. In Palos Hills, Illinois, kids can play in large inflatable toys, and a face-painter will be on hand at a local park.

Tim McCarthy, a retired Orland Park, Illinois, police chief, has called National Night Out “a great way for kids to meet their local police officers in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere unlike an emergency setting.”

McCarthy, a former Secret Service member best known for taking a bullet for President Ronald Reagan in a 1983 assassination attempt, told Patch in 2019 that police officers “enjoy seeing everyone come back each year to see all that’s happening with the police department, and to have a fun evening.”

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