The Bucyrus Police Department encourages neighbors to get out and get to know each other during the annual National Night Out, which just may help crime prevention.
“We just encourage the different neighborhoods to get out and get together,” said Jennifer Gerger, a dispatcher with the Bucyrus Police Department. “Just getting neighborhoods together does so much in taking down a crime statistic.”
Gerger said she has been with the department for almost 28 years, and National Night Out has happened in Bucyrus for well over 20 years. Some years, she said it was bigger than others – up to 24 or 25 parties. The event was paused for a couple of years during the COVID pandemic.
“COVID kind of killed us a little bit,” Gerger said. “We’ve been slowly coming back up now, and I want to say last year there may have been maybe 15 parties, but there is no limit, we will take any applications that want to come in, we will be glad to add them to the list.”
This year's event is Tuesday, Aug. 6.
City crews are notified of the neighborhoods hosting parties so barricades and trash cans can be supplied.
The applications indicating when and where parties are being held are provided to police so they and firefighters, council members and city administrators know where to go to visit.
“That way, the people – they can speak with their council members, they can speak with officers if they have any concerns, they can learn, they get to see the faces of the public servants that serve them,” Gerger said.
Applications are free, and party hosts receive party packs from police that include safety pamphlets, balloons, table cloths and more, Gerger said.
“We don’t care what kind of activities they have – they can have a potluck, they can do hot dogs over campfire, they can do numerous things, we just want them to get out and get to know each other so that when crime does happen they can be watching out for each other, and they can help us by reporting things that may be happening on their neighbors' properties,” Gerger said.
National Night Out is a national community awareness day put up by the National Association of Town Watch composed of the police departments across the nation, Gerger said.
Crawford County Prevention Coalition National Night Out plans
Crawford County Prevention Coalition plans to participate in National Night Out and will throw a water balloon party aimed at helping to fight the stigma associated with substance abuse, said Christi Eckert from the Prevention Coalition.
“We got this idea from our coalition in another state,” Eckert said. “We want to do a community water balloon fight where we will splash out stigma with the water balloons.”
Eckert said Crawford County Prevention Coalition wanted its party to be a generational event for the community, where kids and parents could participate together to reinforce the importance of family ties.
The event also is dedicated to strengthening community ties with its first responders.
“We kind of feel this is a really great tie because health and safety also means a drug free or substance free community,” Eckert said.
Beyond National Night Out: Amplified Expressions
The Prevention Coalition's second annual Amplified Expressions is planned for Aug. 10 at the Galion Community Theater.
Amplified Expressions is held this year in collaboration with the Crawford County Art Center.
Last year the Prevention Coalition paired six people in recovery with six artists, ranging from painters to choreographers. The people in recovery shared their stories and artists created art pieces around the stories and individuals.
At the event the individuals in recovery shared their stories in brief with the audience, followed by their artist partners.
Eckert said the hope to attract the about same number of artists as last year, increase the number of the individuals in recovery.
“We would also like to draw some individuals in recovery that don’t want to share their story, but maybe they are artists, they can have their art display,” Eckert said.
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