Aurora comes together for National Night Out

Nathan Vanden Heuvel, 17, of Aurora, elected to wander over to his local park Tuesday night in order to shoot some hoops and take part in some planned activities as part of National Night Out.

“I’ve done a couple of these events before and my brother wanted me to come to take part in a basketball tournament,” he said. “I got to know a lot of my neighbors as a result of this and a number of relationships started here.”

A total of 26 neighborhood gatherings aimed at building a sense of community and partnerships with local police took place Tuesday night as the 40th annual National Night Out was celebrated throughout Aurora.

First launched back in 1984, the national event continues to take place on the first Tuesday of August.

“We have 26 sites this year representing all 10 wards,” said Aurora Chief Communications and Equity Officer Clayton Muhammad about Tuesday’s events. “Some activities that are consistent with each one include interaction with our police officers and public safety officials like fire and emergency medical teams. There are also elected city officials and throughout the night there is music, food, petting zoos and children’s activities.”

A variety of educational activities were also offered, Muhammad said.

“This is kind of our segue into our back-to-school mode since after this event starts all of our back-to-school events and fairs,” he said. “This becomes a transition from summertime into the school year with a focus on what matters most which is the community and children in particular.”

Muhammad said sites taking part in National Night Out at one time reached a total of just over 40 in Aurora before the pandemic, and that scaling back was done to make sure “that quantity did not beat out quality.”

“We want to make certain that our public safety officials are able to get to each one and so we saw these 40-plus locations and started asking whether we were doing what this night was supposed to do, which is make personal connections,” he said. “We found that the sweet spot for Aurora was around a couple of dozen events, and we like it right at that area. Some wards have four or five events based on the ward itself and neighborhood groups, while others have one huge event like ‘We Inspire Nations’ in Ward 9 at Wheatlands Park.”

Vanden Heuvel was one of hundreds who came to the event at Wheatlands Park as well as Micah Welton of Aurora, who said he looks forward to National Night Out every year.

“I think this is a great night. I’m always looking forward to it every year. National Night Out is something that I’m always thinking about as my brother runs one of the spots here through ‘We Inspire Nations.’” Welton said. “We look forward to making Aurora bigger and better. I think networking with police is very important.”

Ald. Edward Bugg, 9th Ward, was busy setting up a number of tables before the event Tuesday and said he was proud to host “one of the bigger sites in Aurora.”

“The community really embraces it and we have a partnership with the police department and we really want – not only our adults but our young people – to meet the police in a different way, in a community-based fun way,” he said. “That’s the way we want to introduce police to our people. We started at a smaller park actually and the community really embraced this and it grew over time to the point we needed a bigger space. Last year, we had over 300 people and this year, I bought ice cream for more than 300. It’s a great problem to have.”

Zohaib Kahn of Aurora and his 7-year-old son Ismail said they live just a few steps away from the park and that after many National Night Outs Kahn has learned what his children like.

“Typically, they enjoy the pony rides and they come for the face painting and it’s a nice way to celebrate summer as we’re getting close to the end as well,” he said. “It’s just a good family time. This does build community and you end up seeing people you haven’t seen for a while or meeting new people.”

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.