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ABOVE: Neighborhoods throughout Stafford held Night Out events.
Judy Bailey (center) laughs after blowing up balloons for her grandchildren, Lindsey Lauver, 5, and Carter Rice, 4, during National Night Out at the White Oak Volunteer Rescue Squad.
Volunteer Ground Search and Rescue training officer Don Bloom shows visitors some of the gear used Aidan Good, 2, sits in a White Oak Volunteer Rescue Squad vehicle with his mother, Suzie. Night Out is an annual crime-prevention event. |
National Night Out in Stafford drew the largest county attendance in the program's 25-year history, as nine more communities joined in the annual event held Aug. 4.
Stafford Market Place, traditionally the county's largest NNO gathering, drew about 2,000 people, a 50 percent increase over last year's crowd, according to Patricia Copeland, captain of Rescue 9 in Aquia Harbour and organizer of the North Stafford event. Now in its fifth year, it has grown from an original 500 people.
"We've gone through 1,500 hot dogs already," she said in the middle of the four-hour gathering.
NNO is a nationwide event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch, a nonprofit crime-prevention organization in Philadelphia. It brings local police, emergency-services groups and communities together in a common fight against crime.
Stafford Sheriff Charles Jett, his deputies and McGruff the Crime Dog fanned out over the county to give communities this year's message: "Neighbors Helping Neighbors."
"During these economically challenging times," Jett told a gathering of residents at Falls Run in southern Stafford, "our job gets a bit harder."
He commended the decade-old development for being "truly a model for communities to follow. Remain watchful. We really need your ears and eyes out there."
Bill Arnst, director of Falls Run Neighborhood Watch, said about 200 residents were attending the event--so many that tickets had to be issued to keep the number at fire code regulations.
Celebrate Virginia was the sheriff's second stop.
"Please call us if it doesn't look right," he told residents of the new community still being built out.
Mel Chernow, chairman of the Neighborhood Watch, said they had been put to the "eyes and ears" test. Last year a resident noticed three men working in a house under construction who seemed to be removing copper tubing rather than installing it.
The Sheriff's Office was called and the men were arrested.
Austin Ridge, in northern central Stafford, made the occasion not only an educational event but also a fundraiser to Adopt a Classroom at nearby Anthony Burns Elementary School.
"A major reason for programs like this," said Kay Stevens, property manager at Austin Ridge, "is to get neighbors out, to get an awareness of who lives next door, who lives in the community. You'll know when a stranger comes into the neighborhood and, as the sheriff says, if it doesn't look right, you'll know how to do something about it."
Hugh Muir: 540/735-1975
Email: hmuir@freelancestar.com
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The following Stafford communities participated in National Night Out.
Augustine North Austin Ridge Aventine at Courthouse Square Brentwood Estates * Brookstone Cannon Ridge Celebrate Virginia * Clearview Heights Crescent Pointe * England Run North * England Run Villages * Falls Run Garrison Woods Greenridge * Hampton Oaks Harwill Acres Highpointe * Hunters Pond Leeland Station Park Ridge Poplar Hills Potomac Hills Spring Lake Farm * Stafford Meadows * Stafford Borough Townhomes Stone River Stafford Place St. George's Estates Woodlawn Stafford Market Place * First-year participant |
