The first thing I noticed walking toward Quincy’s National Night Out was impossible to miss: Grant County Fire District 3’s ladder truck, with its ladder rising high into a bright blue sky. After weeks of smoke, poor air quality and the postponement of the original event, it was a welcome sight. But as I got closer, something else began to stand out. I knew the people setting up. I recognized people arriving. Before long, I looked around a crowded street and realized I was surrounded not by strangers, but by familiar faces from throughout the 98848.
TL;DR
Quincy’s rescheduled National Night Out brought residents together with police, firefighters, EMS, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and community organizations.
Children climbed through emergency vehicles, sounded sirens, collected stickers and spent the evening interacting with local first responders.
Quincy police officers served hot dogs while Quincy Partnership for Youth handed out paletas donated by La Mexicana.
Veterans Operation Creation participated in the opening ceremony and national anthem.
More than anything, the evening demonstrated the value of residents getting to know the people who serve their community before they meet during an emergency.
Before the Crowd Arrived
I tend to arrive early. Part of that comes from being raised on Lombardi Time; if you are not early, you are late but covering community events has given me another reason. Arriving before the crowd gives me time to figure out where everything is, where announcements will happen and where I might want to be once things get busy.
National Night Out was still coming together when I walked onto the street near the Quincy Police Department. Firefighters were positioning equipment. Columbia EMS was bringing its ambulance into place. Grant County Sheriff’s Office vehicles were already occupying the west end of the event. Quincy police officers were preparing hot dogs, while the animal shelter had set up nearby and even brought kittens looking for homes.
After the event had to be rescheduled because of smoke, I had wondered how many participating organizations would be able to make the new date work. Coordinating that many agencies and community groups is difficult enough the first time. Yet there they were.
More importantly, there were the people behind them.
Chief Ryan Green was helping prepare tables and condiments. Officers I regularly see around town were working the food area. Mayor Paul Worley was visiting with people. Quincy’s new city administrator was there with his family. Friends from Quincy Partnership for Youth were getting ready. Veterans Operation Creation was preparing to participate in the opening.
That is when the evening began feeling like something more than another community event.
The People Behind the Uniforms
National Night Out was created nationally for exactly this kind of interaction. The first event was held in 1984, bringing an estimated 2.5 million people together in 400 communities across 23 states. The idea has grown considerably since then, but its purpose remains centered on strengthening relationships between communities and law enforcement.
Quincy has participated since about 2011. When I spoke with Sgt. Joe Westby before this year’s event, he explained that one of its greatest benefits is allowing residents to meet officers and other first responders when nothing is wrong. Most interactions with police officers, firefighters and paramedics happen during traffic stops, accidents, medical emergencies, fires or frightening situations. National Night Out changes the circumstances.
Standing there before the event began, I could see his point from the other side.
Because of the work I do covering Quincy, I interact with many of these people more frequently than the average resident probably does. They are no longer simply “the police chief,” “a firefighter,” “someone from EMS” or “a city official.” I know names. We talk at meetings and events. We run into each other around town.
That familiarity changes things.
National Night Out gives everyone else an opportunity to begin building some of those same connections.
Then Quincy Started Showing Up
As 5:30 approached, the street became steadily busier.
I started seeing business owners I knew, community members I recognized, school families, people from church, parents whose children have participated in activities with my daughters and people I regularly see at the Quincy Public Market, sporting events or around town.
Of course I did not know everyone. Quincy and the surrounding 98848 are far too large for that. But I was surprised by how many people I could place.
Maybe we had never had a long conversation. Maybe I did not remember a name. But there was the person I had seen at the grocery store, the parent from a school activity, someone from a community meeting or the family I had passed at another event.
Meanwhile, people I had never met were pouring in alongside them. That mixture may be one of the best descriptions of community: people you know, people you recognize and people you have not met yet, all sharing the same place.
A Flag, Some Hot Dogs and Very Loud Sirens
Chief Green welcomed the crowd, and Veterans Operation Creation helped officially open the evening with the national anthem.
Then the wind decided to participate.
A gust caught the American flag during the anthem and started taking the stand toward the pavement. Westby reacted immediately, lunging to catch it before the flag hit the ground. He succeeded, although the save nearly included a face-first introduction to the pavement.
Westby, who is also a military veteran, managed to save the flag and himself in roughly that order.
Once the anthem ended, National Night Out quickly became a community picnic. Police officers went into full food-service mode as residents lined up for hot dogs. Quincy Partnership for Youth handed out paletas donated by La Michoacana. Music played while families moved between booths and emergency vehicles.
For children, those vehicles were clearly among the biggest attractions.
They climbed into fire trucks, ambulances and law enforcement vehicles. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office brought several pieces of equipment, including an off-road vehicle and a boat. Kids flipped switches, activated lights, sounded horns and, occasionally, discovered the sirens.
So did everyone standing nearby.
I happened to be standing much too close to a sheriff’s vehicle when one child was given permission to try the siren. The child was delighted.
My ears were less enthusiastic.
Throughout the street, though, the smiles told the story. Children were talking with police officers and firefighters, exploring equipment, asking questions and meeting first responders in an environment where the only emergency was perhaps deciding whether to get another paleta.
What This Means to You
That matters more than it might seem.
Westby told me before National Night Out that a child who has a positive interaction with an officer may remember that face later when he or she needs help. An adult who has already talked casually with a firefighter, paramedic or police officer may feel a little more comfortable when that person arrives during an emergency.
National Night Out does not create those relationships in a single evening, but it can introduce them.
There is another benefit that extends beyond public safety. Events like this give residents a chance to repeatedly encounter one another until strangers gradually become recognizable and recognizable people eventually become acquaintances, friends and neighbors.
That is something I have come to appreciate about living in the 98848.
I moved frequently for much of my life, and before Quincy I had never stayed anywhere particularly long. Maybe other places held just as many community events and I simply did not know about them. But I have never lived anywhere where I have experienced this many opportunities for a community to gather together.
National Night Out is one. Farmer-Consumer Awareness Days is another. So are the B Street events, community celebrations, school activities, the police and fire softball game and countless smaller gatherings throughout the year.
Individually, they are simply events on a calendar.
Collectively, they are part of how a town gets to know itself.
The Reason We Keep Showing Up
Later in the evening, my wife and oldest daughter joined me. We had some hot dogs, walked around and spent time with the community.
There was nothing particularly complicated about any of it.
Children played. Parents talked. Police officers cooked. First responders showed kids their equipment. Community organizations shared information. The mayor, city administrator and other local leaders shook hands and visited with residents. People laughed, ate and spent a warm summer evening together. And that simplicity may be exactly why these events matter.
National Night Out began more than four decades ago around the idea that safer communities are built through stronger relationships between residents and the people who serve them. Quincy’s event accomplished that, but it also demonstrated something broader.
Small-town community does not happen simply because we live in a small town.
It happens because people continue to show up.
By the time National Night Out was fully underway, that Fire District 3 ladder was still stretching into the clear sky above us. Below it was a street filled with police officers, firefighters, paramedics, city leaders, community organizations, parents and children.
Some were friends. Some were acquaintances. Some were people I only recognized from somewhere else around town. Others were people I had never seen before. But standing there together on a summer evening, none of us felt particularly far apart.
That is one of the things worth holding onto about life in the 98848: the opportunity to keep showing up until a street full of strangers becomes a street full of familiar faces.
