30 July 2023
DULUTH National Night Out has returned again. The annual event is held the first Tuesday in August across the United States. In Duluth, over 60 events have been scheduled in neighborhoods in the 27-mile long city. The event is a community-building campaign that promotes interactions and camaraderie among emergency service providers and neighbors, according to the National Night Out website. It’s been held for 39 years, barring some exceptions for COVID-19.
Events throughout the city range from small gatherings of neighbors around a campfire, to businesses building community with pig roasts, to churches with ukulele music and streets with belching contests. What makes people decide to keep on planning these parties?
For Sue Pappas, it’s all about getting to know her neighbors.
“We live in a neighborhood where we have older people and young families and there’s people walking back and forth and we say hi, but nobody really sits and talks,” Pappas said. “So for me, it’s just a way to get people to get to know one another.”
Pappas and her neighbors have hosted an NNO party for 5 years. She said the enthusiasm she sees in her neighbors spurs her to keep on hosting. What’s her secret to a good party? Having lots of activities.
“We have activities like a neighbor who is going to lead the kids in painting positive messages on rocks and another who is going to paint faces, another who makes up a scavenger hunt,” Pappas said. “But the big draw are the contests like the belching contest and biggest bubble gum contest.”
For others the event is about meeting their local first responders. Len Johnson, who organizes a part in the Raleigh neighborhood, said he started planning their party with his neighbor George LaFont back in 2018.
“It is a night to celebrate and laugh, a fun night of laughing with family, friends, and neighbors. A gathering of all ages, all coming together to celebrate our community,” Len Johnson said. “National Night must highlight the importance of our first responders and the necessity of these friends and family members that keep our communities safe. I have been helped in many times of crisis by first responders, and we celebrate all who serve and wear the uniform.”
Up at Piedmont Dental, administrator Mary Johnson said the office has hosted a party annually since 2014. What started as a gathering of 100 people has grown to an expected 500-people full pig roast with visits from the St. Louis County Search and Rescue Squad, as well as the Duluth fire and police departments.
“The fire department has this kitchen-fire demo unit where they can teach about different types of fire and how you should properly put them out, which people said was very interesting,” Mary Johnson said. “And we have prizes for drawing like gift cards and electric toothbrushes.”
Annie Matthys is fairly new to the NNO scene. This is her second year organizing a party. Her first was last year just after her family moved to a new neighborhood.
“It was a good chance to meet everyone and get to know them. We love knowing our neighbors and feeling like our neighborhood is a community,” Matthys said. “It’s just another way to create that bond between people.”
Matthys said she likes to play a more casual gathering, with community games of volleyball and other yard games to with their potluck.
Up the shore in French River, the French River Lutheran Church hosts an NNO party as a way to let people in the community connect.
“People think of the North Shore as a place that’s not really populated, but there are houses every 100 feet or so. We just act as an anchor point, since it’s not easily possibly to host one in the street here,” said Pastor Kim Sturtz. “We’re a place of rest and refuge and we try to help people feel that sense of belonging.”
Sturtz said the church has been hosting a party since the 1990s. One of their features is the Two Harbors Ukulele Group who come and provide entertainment every year.
“And we have our local fire department come and people get to know each other,” Strutz said. “It’s just a good time for all.”
Find your local National Night Out gathering by visiting duluthmn.gov/police/community-policing/national-night-out.
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