Return of National Night Out to Highland County 'exceeds' expectations

Highland County first responders recently teamed up to bring National Night Out back to the community for the first time in several years, with the event bringing in over 200 guests for an evening of free, family-friendly fun.

According to https://natw.org, “National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live. 

“National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community. Furthermore, it provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.” The event is held each year on the first Tuesday in August.

Planning for the Aug. 4 local observance — which was held in Hillsboro at the site of the former high school — was headquartered in the Highland County Victim Witness office, with collaboration with all local law enforcement and first responder agencies and many other community partners, including generous sponsors and volunteers, according to Victim Witness director Ashley Sanders and advocate Lisa Dingey. This year’s National Night Out was the first event in Highland County since at least 2019, but possibly as far back as 2017, Sanders said.

“It had previously been done, and it hasn't been done in a while, and we wanted the opportunity to really get back into the law enforcement and first responders being an essential part of the community fun, not just the community safety,” Sanders said. “The goal was to get first responders and the community and especially the kids to have just one night of absolute fun. 

“I think that goal was exceeded. Everybody had a great time, and it was absolutely free.”

“Fun” was a key theme of the event, which in years past had been held around the courthouse square. With more room to spread out, Sanders said there were a ton of activities hosted by first responder agencies from around the county, with a particular focus on making it a kid-friendly event.

“The first 10 kids that came through the door got a little extra special bags, and then everyone else had bags that had meal tickets and dunk tickets and the scavenger hunt, which turned out really well,” Sanders said. “All the sponsors were also promoted on our bags.”

Activities with first responders included a Nerf gun pin shoot by the Greenfield Police Department; a fire safety inflatable by Paint Creek Joint EMS/Fire District; Project Lifesaver and drone demos by the Highland County Sheriff’s Office; CPR, NARCAN and fire extinguisher classes by Highland County North Joint Fire and Ambulance District; face painting by the Highland County Task Force; a patrol boat tour and archery inflatable by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources; K9 demos by the HCSO and Hillsboro and Greenfield Police Departments; a fire engine display by Eastern Joint Fire and EMS District; and a helicopter tour by Air Evac Lifeteam 89. 

Other activities included a bike safety rodeo by the Highland County Health Department, with free helmets; the Heroes Trail scavenger hunt and a victim memorial garden by Highland County Victim Witness; a cornhole tournament by Highland County Cornhole; hair tinsel, temporary tattoos, Jeep duck decorating, coffee sleeve decorating and sticker booths by Hillsboro varsity cheerleaders; an information booth by NCB; a fingerprint/photo ID booth by Highland County Child Protective Services; a football inflatable by Huhtamaki; a dunk tank donated by Jennifer Fligor, who also provided photography services for the event; a cupcake decorating booth by the Highland County Probation Department/ADAMH; a Save A Warrior display; free pop and water from the Highland County Peace Officers Association and food from Chaddanooga BBQ; interactive booths by the Girl Scouts, Highco, Highland County EMA, Ohio School Safety Center, The Reserves Network, VA and Visitors Bureau; and adoptable pets brought by the Highland County Dog Pound and Petland. 

“We had, I think, a representative of every single first responder entity or agency in Highland County,” Sanders said. “The police force and the firefighters and the EMS really showed up for the event. They did all kinds of demonstrations, so we had the K9 demos, the drone demo. Project Lifesaver is probably one of the coolest things we had because it’s a new program through the sheriff’s office where they are providing these bracelets to individuals that are at risk for wandering.

“They use radio transmitters to find the frequency to find out where these people, so it’s neat. That's probably one of the bigger things that we wanted to like push during National Night Out for an actual safety for the community.”

Other more practical activities, especially the fire extinguisher training, were both fun and informative and were a big hit among the kids in attendance, Sanders said. 

Each child in attendance received a ticket with the opportunity for three tries at the dunk tank. The dunk booth featured several local attorneys — Assistant Prosecutor Jim Roeder, Juvenile/Probate Court Judge-elect Denny Kirk, Municipal Court Judge Chad Randolph and Prosecutor Anneka Collins — who were good sports and each endured a half-hour in the tank.

The scavenger hunt organized by Victim Witness (whose office also includes advocate Debbie Zile) also rewarded kids for taking advantage of all of the activities, with five different “missions” plus a bonus round giving them the opportunity to win additional prizes. The challenges for kids included meeting and talking to police officers, firefighters, EMTs and K9s; interacting with emergency vehicle equipment, including police cruisers, fire trucks, ambulances and the ODNR patrol boat; asking all of the first responders to show them their badges or patches; and a safety mission to take part in the fire extinguisher class, watch the Project Lifesaver demo, try on firefighter safety gear and find a patrol boat life jacket. There was also a mission to visit at least three vendor booths, while the bonus round was to take a photo with either first responders or their emergency vehicles. 

An intern in the Victim Witness office, Braydon Ames, also designed coloring sheets featuring each of the area K9s for their handlers to share. 

In addition to those mentioned, other volunteers included probationers who assisted with cleanup and Charlene Stevenson with Edgewood Manor of Greenfield. The Victim Witness office added that Taylor Eversole, Tessa Gaines, Jodi Murarescu and Amanda Waits of NCB were four especially “fantastic” volunteers who jumped in wherever needed. 

“We had a lot of people that came forward and were really interested in helping make National Night Out a success,” Sanders said. 

The event was also made possible by the generosity of several sponsors, including Beechwood Pizza & Carryout, Buckeye Dentistry, Community Markets, Country Manor Mixes, Hillsboro Eagles 1161 Ladies Auxiliary, Hillsboro Family Vision, McCarty Associates LLC, National Cooperative Bank, Peoples Bank, REACH for Tomorrow, Southern Ohio Appraisers, Turner & Son Funeral Homes and Crematory, VFW Post #9094 Auxiliary and W.E. Hodson, Inc. Sanders added that Community Markets and Peoples Bank covered the cost of all of the food for the event, with all visitors treated to a free meal, while the Hillsboro Eagles 1161 Ladies Auxiliary provided the largest single monetary donation. 

Anyone who is interested in donating toward next year’s event can contact Sanders at asanders@co.highland.oh.us.

“Next year there will be tier-leveled sponsorships that are going to be available to the community,” Sanders said. “They also could just be a prize sponsor or a meal ticket sponsor or something like that.”

Since this year’s event was such a hit, Sanders said the committee will be meeting in the coming months to discuss ways to make next year’s National Night Out even better.

“There's lots of ideas that we have for next year, but the overall goal is that every single year we'll make sure that Highland County kids have a great night to interact with first responders, and they have fun doing it,” Sanders said. “We want more of that Mayberry, small-town festival, close interactions with law enforcement and first responders.”

For more photos from this year’s event, visit https://www.facebook.com/hcvictimwitness.

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