Community comes out against crime

BY STACI WILSON

National Night Out takes the fight against crime and drugs to the streets.

But it does so in a family-friendly way with games, crafts, facepainting, ice cream and a visit from McGruff, the Crime Dog.

Trehab and the Susquehanna County Sheriff’s Department coordinated the event held Tuesday, Aug. 7 on the Green in Montrose.

Andrew Granick, Trehab drug & alcohol prevention specialist and one of the coordinators of the event said, “The purpose of National Night Out is to bring the community together. To say to criminals, we’re not going to tolerate that in our community.”

Sheriff Lance Benedict said, “(National Night Out) shows we can get together as a community and be safe – and that we’re not going to tolerate crime.”

Deputies, local police, as well as District Attorney Jason Legg and county detectives were also on hand during the event.

“It’s an opportunity for our officers to be out of the car and get to know the people in the community and so the public knows us,” Benedict said.

In addition to Trehab and law enforcement, other community organizations also came out for the event, including 4-H, Dairy Promotions and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

BB/BS Program Director Cynthia Beeman said many of the program participants attended the Tuesday night event.

“It’s a good opportunity for the families to come out and see and experience things in the community they perhaps didn’t know about,” Beeman said. “And also to get information about programs they may not have looked at before.”

Mess’s Title & Tag provided the ice cream served up by Susquehanna County Dairy Princess Callie Curley and her court.

Benedict said, “It was a great event.” And plans are already in the works for the 2013 National Night Out.

The sheriff said he would like to expand the event by reaching out to get even more organizations involved next year.