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National Night Out 2008
This year’s National Night Out was held on Tuesday, August 5. Twenty (20) Neighborhood Watch Groups throughout Winston-Salem participated in National Night Out by holding a variety of events, from cookouts to pot luck dinners to dessert socials, to a stroll through the neighborhood. Winston-Salem Neighborhood Watch groups had a total of 1,204 participants, in comparison to 670 in 2007.
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This year’s Opening Ceremony was held at 1322 Motor Road at New Birth of Christ Church, with Ms. Clara Yountz and Ms. Maxine Johnson’s Neighborhood Watch group. Mayor Allen Joines, Council Members Vivian H. Burke, Dan Bessie, Molly Leight, and Evelyn Terry attended this year’s Opening Ceremony, as well as City Manager Lee Garrity and Deputy City Manager Derwick Paige. Mayor Allen Joines read the proclamation and Council Member Vivian H. Burke and Winston Salem Police Chief Scott Cunningham were guest speakers. |
Target was the official sponsor of National Night Out; therefore, the Opening Ceremony received a tremendous amount of help from the two locations in Winston Salem. Target of Hanes Mall and University Pkwy. helped make Winston-Salem’s Opening Ceremony a success by supplying food, drinks, entertainment, baskets for the chairpersons and gift certificates for the scavenger hunt, coloring contest, and poster contest.
Neighbors entered tickets for prize drawings and children got to play a variety of games from ring toss to tic-tac-toe. Children in the neighborhood also participated in a scavenger hunt, where the winner received a $10.00 gift certificate for Target, courtesy of Target.
The Winston-Salem Police Department displayed the Mobile Police Station, several police vehicles, and two police motorcycles. McGruff also came by for a visit to meet with neighbors.
On Monday, November 10, the Police Department held a National Night Out Banquet to reward those Neighborhood Watch Groups that participated in National Night Out. We handed out certificates to all Neighborhood Watch Groups who participated in National Night Out, as well as an award to the Neighborhood Watch Group with the most participants. We also passed out awards to the children who won the poster and coloring contest.
 The Neighborhood Watch Group with the most participants for National Night Out 2008 was the Pecan Ridge Neighborhood Watch group, headed by Ms. Claudette Bailey. This group had 163 attendees at their event.
Winston-Salem has been selected as a National Award Winner for outstanding participation in the 25th Annual National Night Out. Winston Salem placed 17th in Category 2, cities with a population of 100,000 - 299,000. (view NATW Award letter [pdf]) To see more National Night Out 2008 winners, you can go to http://www.natw.org/nno/award.html.
The Winston-salem police department would like to thank all the Neighborhood Watch groups who helped make National Night Out 2008 such a tremendous success.
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