EAST LONGMEADOW — The town of East Longmeadow will host its annual National Night Out event on Aug. 6 from 5-8 p.m. at East Longmeadow High School.
The event will feature vendors from local businesses, public safety agencies, government officials and organizations in addition to food and other demonstrations, Police Chief Mark Williams told Reminder Publishing. The entire event, including food and demonstrations, will be completely free to residents.
While there are expected to be minor impacts to the event due to the construction at the high school, the impacts will not affect residents, said Don Maki, who has been an organizer for the event since 2008.
He explained that most of the impacts occurred while planning the event, such as selecting where vendors will set up with the reduced space available at the field. To reduce as many impacts as possible, Maki worked with construction manager Fontaine Bros. to coordinate the event around work at the school.
Maki noted parking and entering the school property as two potential modifications compared to past years. According to an update from the School Building Committee, the main entrance to the high school will be the easternmost entrance on Maple Street during the month of August as work continues on the new bus loop.
On the day of the event, one notable demonstration will be the Fire Department’s burn trailers, which show the value of sprinklers, Maki said. In the demonstration, the department will light two specially designed trailers on fire with one set up with water sprinklers and the other without.
The demonstration is “astonishingly dramatic,” as both trailers are engulfed in flames within a couple minutes and experience “total” damage. It highlights how effective the sprinklers are in managing and reducing the impacts of fire, Maki explained.
The National Night Out event will also include an antique car show and free giveaways from the vendors, he said. In this way, the celebration will “show residents what’s available in the community.”
Within the three-hour event, East Longmeadow’s National Night Out typically draws between 800 to 1,200 residents, Maki stated.
In past years, the event has also featured police comfort dogs, a K-9 demonstration and a visit from a state police helicopter, Maki said. Although these demonstrations will not be available this year due to the space constraints from the high school’s construction work.
When asked about why this event was important to host year after year, Williams emphasized the event’s “design to celebrate public safety,” highlighting how the celebration was an important way to draw the community together, share information about local resources, and reconnect with other residents.
For the Police Department, “it’s a great way for police to see residents in a fun environment,” Williams said, noting that police often interact with residents in emergencies or other serious situations, rather than in “a more normal, relaxed environment.”
He encouraged residents to attend the Aug. 6 event, saying “we hope to see everybody there” and remarking that in his years of attending, the event was always larger than the year before.
