with free fun in Sarasota County
SARASOTA COUNTY – Our community will join thousands of others nationwide in celebrating National Night Out 2014 with a local event aimed at crime prevention. The Sarasota County celebration will be held from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, at Woodmere Park, 3951 Woodmere Park Blvd., Venice.
Residents are invited to come out and enjoy free food, entertainment and activities for children. The event will also feature door prizes, a SWAT junior obstacle course and Strider bike course, and self-defense, K-9 and crime prevention demos from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Visitors will be able to meet the Oriole Bird and Red-E Fox.
Parking is free, but neighborhood residents are encouraged to join together in walking or biking to the event.
National Night Out is co-sponsored by Sarasota County, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, Target and Strider. Sarasota is a past national award winner for outstanding participation.
The national event organizer is the nonprofit National Association of Town Watch (NATW), with events in more than 16,000 communities from all 50 states, U.S, territories, Canadian cities and military bases worldwide. More than 37 million people participate in National Night Out last year, and 2014’s event is expected to be the largest ever.
The event is designed to:
- heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;
- generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime efforts;
- strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships;
- send a message to criminals letting them know neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.
“This is a night for America to stand together and promote awareness, safety, and neighborhood unity,” said Matt Peskin, national project coordinator. “National Night Out showcases the vital importance of police-community partnerships and citizen involvement in our fight for a safer nation. On NNO, we invite neighborhoods nationwide to join us and ‘give crime a going away party.’ ”
For more information, call the Sarasota County Contact Center at 941-861-5000 or visit www.scgov.net/neighborhoodservices or www.natw.org.
