Fun and food at National Night Out

Bloomfield held its National Night Out at Vassar Field on Tuesday evening,
Aug. 1.

The country-wide event began in 1984 as a law enforcement effort to restore safety to neighborhood streets by filling them with residents, hometown organizations and activities. But the genesis for National Night Out, according to its website, began in 1970 in Philadelphia, with Matt Peskin, a volunteer neighborhood watch patrolman who recognized that a multitude of watch groups shared the same concerns but were not connected to each other.

A few years later, he established the National Association of Town Watch to dissolve this isolation with shared information. The association now administers NNO which involves 17,000 communities and generally occurs on Aug. 1.

At the township event, organized by the Bloomfield Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department, there were information tables for the Bloomfield Police Department and the local food pantry and a 50/50 raffle.

Three gigantic inflated play stations attracted kids eager to bounce, climb, slide or maneuver through a soft obstacle course. “Dunk a Cop,” where a pitched ball could drop one of Bloomfield’s finest into a water tank, drew eager youngsters.

The annual softball contest between the police and fire departments, ordinarily played at Memorial Park, was a kickball game with the police surviving 3-2.

Both departments sent vehicles and personnel as did the Newark office of the FBI. Skyline Church provided face painters and the Journey cover band Frontiers drew a sizable crowd which also saw a jazz dance performance by a trio Shooting Star Dance Center small fry.

  bloomfield, Bloomfield Police Department, National Night Out