Hundreds of Greenbelt residents, the Greenbelt Police Department and the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department gathered across the city on Tuesday, August 6 to celebrate National Night Out, an annual community event held on the first Tuesday in August.
The night out is aimed at promoting “police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie,” according to the National Night Out website. National events range from block parties, festivals and cookouts to safety demonstrations and police and fire department exhibits.
Greenbelters flocked to five different locations across Greenbelt last week to celebrate. Games and prizes were shared by residents, members of the Greenbelt City Council and those working for the Greenbelt police and fire departments. The festivities were held at Hunting Ridge, Schrom Hills Recreation Center, Windsor Green, Lakeside North and Beltway Plaza.
The most-attended location was behind Beltway Plaza, where kids and their families stood in long lines to enjoy food from Mission BBQ. An inflatable obstacle course was set up for children to navigate while others waited for an exciting opportunity to extinguish a flame with help from firefighters. Tours of fire-fighting equipment, fire trucks and ambulances also were offered to the public.
Backyard games such as cornhole welcomed fun competition between friends as others waited patiently to hear their raffle number called to win prizes.
“It’s been great to see everyone out here,” said Brian Roberts, who works with the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department. “Lots of kids, lots of families. It’s been awesome to see everyone out.”
As the event offered a space for Greenbelters to come together and build relationships, it also allowed the volunteer fire department to fill vacancies left by Prince George’s County’s reassignment of career firefighters away from Greenbelt. Roberts said he spoke with multiple residents who were interested in lending a hand to the fire department. He said the community is now more aware of the role that firefighters and safety personnel play in Greenbelt.
“For the fire department, we get some potential volunteers,” Roberts said. “I think they enjoy seeing the apparatus … it makes them more aware of what we do.”
Greenbelt has been celebrating this tradition of community bonding since 1985. As Greenbelt’s National Night Out continues, more and more Greenbelters are attending the event. Roberts said the crowds have increased by “four, five, six times” the number of people at the initial celebration.
Matthew Neus is a student in the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a summer intern at the News Review.