Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. -- Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point partnered with the City of Havelock for the 36th Annual National Night Out at the Walter B. Jones Park in Havelock, North Carolina, Aug. 6, 2019.
Marines and civilians with MCAS Cherry Point Provost Marshal Office (PMO), Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), Special Reaction Team (SRT) and Emergency Services joined forces with the Havelock Police Department to help raise awareness on the seriousness of neighborhood crime and drug use to residents.
Safety demonstrations, information booths, crime prevention activities, food and live music are some of the features of the event that took place to promote neighborhood camaraderie, police community partnerships and crime and drug use awareness.
“The initial purpose is to get everyone out here and get a little bit of awareness about public safety and being safe in the community, but the real part is bringing the community together. It’s about getting people from the base and the city out in one park having a good time,” said Havelock Mayor Will Lewis. “These kinds of events remind people that we’re family and not just a bunch of people that live inside a set of borders.”
The event also highlighted the benefits of the longstanding and evolving relationship between the law enforcement and emergency services of the military community and its host city.
“The law enforcement efforts in Cherry Point and the law enforcement efforts in the community have to be able to work hand-in-hand” in various times of emergency, said Col. Mikel Huber, MCAS Cherry Point’s commanding officer, underlining the point that such seamless cooperation is becoming more and more of a necessity for keeping the community’s residents safe.
The event has been held every first Tuesday of the month of August since 1984, and currently involves more than 37.8 million people and 16,124 communities nationwide.