Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Several families and members of the community came out to support local first responders, law enforcement, EMS teams, and military for the 2023 National Night Out celebration on Tuesday at the Gatesville Sports Complex.
National Night Out is a national event that promotes partnerships between local communities and law enforcement. Gatesville’s event provided plenty of food, games, safety demonstrations, vehicle and aircraft displays, and more.
“National Night Out is in its 40th anniversary nationwide, and it started out as a block party format for the police to get to know their community and talk about neighborhood watch,” said Gatesville Police Chief Brad Hunt.
Members of the community had the chance to meet local government entities from Coryell County, military members from Fort Cavazos, and Gatesville’s first responders. Kids and adults also had the opportunity to look inside first responder and military vehicles and helicopters.
“This is our biggest community event of the year, and as you can see, we have about 25-30 different entities out here participating, and it’s all free of charge,” Hunt said.
Hunt adds they had 1,000 hot dogs, 500 servings of ice cream, 700 bags of chips, and around 844 individual cans of soda for the event, which were all donated or purchased through donation funds.
Local organizations also came out to help serve at the event, including the Gatesville Exchange Club, Lions Club, Coryell County 4-H, Righteous Roots, and HEB.
We just want to thank all of them for all their support in helping us really connect with our community,” Hunt said. “You can see all our officers and all the local law enforcement really enjoy being out here and being a part of this.”
