An event to bridge the gap

After being postponed in August due to extreme heat, the annual 2024 National Night Out event, designed to bring the community together with their local first responders, will kick off the month of October Tuesday.

All of Sampson is invited to come out Oct. 1 to James Newkirk Memorial Park, 503 Ferrell St., Clinton, from 6 to 8 p.m., for a night of fun and fellowship. Games, food, live performances and a plethora of other activities are planned for the event, which is free.

“This is an event that we do annually to just bring the community together,” noted Cameron Bryant with the Clinton Police Department. “We invited groups, like all the dance and gymnastics companies, anything that the community can be involved in here in Clinton, we invite all those out to have a fun night. They will be set ups for vendors to advertise anything that may be going on. We‘ll be offering food, there’ll be icy trucks, we have bouncy houses and just lots of activities for community involvement”

It’s that focus on community involvement and partnership that Bryant said was the reason they continue to host National Night Out.

”The chief of police will say a few words that night and our Council (Clinton City Council) come out and they have a chance to speak as well,” she said. “National Night Out, it’s just a fun night to let the community know that the Police Department is here. We like to be involved and we want them to see who we are and feel comfortable to come out and speak with us, as well as those from the fire department. We just want to get out in the community so they can see our faces and and know who’s here to help them.”

National Night Out came to Sampson County years ago at the urging of resident Nettie Pernell, a member of the Newkirk Park Advisory Committee. It is that committee that helps in organizing and running the event. It was a simple idea and desire, after seeing it hosted across the nation, that led Pernell to begin the initiative.

She said she felt it was something that should be celebrated in Sampson.

“I went to the City Council to tell them and present to them about National Night Out,” Pernell recalled. “I had seen it for years on television; in my sister’s neighborhood they were having it, it was in other cities, it’s just all over the whole world. As I saw it, we should do something like that here in Clinton, and so I started talking it up, and finally that year, though I can’t remember exactly which, I decided to go to City Council. We discussed it, and from there we’ve been doing it ever since.”

As Sampson continues to hold National Night Out ,Pernell noted its importance not only as a fun event but also as an event that helps bridge the gap between law enforcement, first responders and those they serve.

“It is a community, law enforcement and first responders event so that people can come together as one,” Pernell asserted. “More than that, it helps us to learn about the resources and the people that work with us,and for us, to make everything better and safer for our community. Coming together for National Night Out, it’s important because it helps us get to a place where people won’t be afraid to call 911 or to give a tip to the police if they see something suspicious.

“This also helps us look out for and watch out for our neighbors, because we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. A lot of the people that are on these jobs live right in our community, and what we need to be, as God says, is our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper and that includes our law enforcement and first responders. We need to act out of love and definitely not out of hate and not out of fear, that’s what we want to promote with National Night Out.”