Plans are underway to promote police-community partnerships through a night of fun, free activities at this year’s National Night Out.

This year’s event will take place Aug. 6 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Linton’s Humphreys Park. 

Free entertainment and food will be provided. Open Roads, a Linton-based band playing country, rock, blues, and Americana music, will perform. Bounce houses will also be provided. The Linton Masonic Lodge #560 and JR Davis Vending will provide food. 

According to a letter from the Greene County National Night Out Committee, the event is one of the largest in Greene County. The event represents law enforcement from across Greene County. The event has drawn crowds of nearly 4,000 people. The committee’s goal is to make this year’s National Night Out the biggest yet. 

“It’s a really good opportunity for our community to meet and interact with our police agencies, our fire agencies, and other people in our community. We try to focus it on kids so they can have that positive interaction,” said Linton Police Department Chief Paul Clark. “We will have lots of participants from local police departments, local fire departments, the prison and their units, and more.”

To help make the event a success, community partners are needed.

“We are looking for partners—partners for booths and partners for sponsorships. In order for this event to succeed, we have to have the partner booths there, but in order for us to have the support to give away the prizes, that’s through our financial partners,” Clark said. “We can’t do it without our partners.”

If your business or organization is interested in becoming a partner, email nno@lintonpolice.com for a partner form. Partner forms are due July 26.

Clark named Linton VFW Post #7118, Linton-Stockton Trustee Office, Greene County General Hospital, Linton Elks Lodge #866, Bloomfield High School NJROTC, and Linton Girls’ Basketball Team as perennial National Night Out partners. He also noted offenders from the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility help get things set up and ready for the event. 

One of the most popular parts of National Night Out is prizes. When kids register, they are given a card with numbers correlating to partner booths. When visiting booths, partners will sign off on their number. When kids have all their numbers signed off on, they turn their card in for tickets. They can then put their tickets into buckets to win a variety of prizes. 

“We try to give away prizes appropriate from the youngest little babies to teenage kids. We try to find things that would be interesting to them,” Clark said. 

If a community partner would like to donate a prize, that’s an option to get involved. 

One can also expect lots of giveaways from community partner booths. Giveaways in the past include pencils, coloring books, stickers, toothbrushes, stress balls, and more.