National Night Out Returns To Schaumburg In 2021

SCHAUMBURG, IL — National Night Out 2021 events in Schaumburg Aug. 3 are part of a nationwide push to strengthen police and community relations.

The nationwide event “promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer,” according to the National Association of Town Watch, the organization that founded the annual early August event in 1984.

Schaumburg has been celebrating its first responders on National Night Out for the past 38 years. The schedule of events for Aug. 3 are:

• 2-4 p.m. — Schaumburg responders will celebrate NNO with parades through senior residential facilities.
• 6-9 p.m. — Additionally, some residents who entered their streets in a drawing were also selected for responder parades on their blocks to enjoy with their neighbors. Fourteen events are being held in local neighborhoods organized by homeowners associations, apartment communities, and Neighborhood Watch Groups. This includes two “village-wide” events for residents without an event in their neighborhood.
• 6-8 p.m. — Senior citizens, teens and families are invited to the Schaumburg Barn/Teen Center, at 231 S. Civic Drive where they will host a combination of intergenerational National Night Out events. Guests must be registered for senior activities.
• 6:30-8:30 p.m. — The Schaumburg Park District will host a community NNO block party at Meineke Park, 220 E. Weathersfield Way for Schaumburg residents.

Since 1984, communities across the country have held National Night Out events on the first Tuesday of August. Block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and other community events have been popular ways to celebrate the outreach-focused event.

More than 2 million Americans took part in the first National Night Out. Now, the event is celebrated in more than 16,000 communities across all 50 states, according to the National Association of Town Watch.

Many National Night Out events are back in 2021 after widespread cancellations last summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For example, businesses in Marple Township, Pennsylvania, are donating goods to be used during a night of music, games and demonstrations. In Palos Hills, Illinois, kids can play in large inflatable toys, and a face-painter will be on hand at a local park.

Tim McCarthy, a retired Orland Park, Illinois, police chief, has called National Night Out “a great way for kids to meet their local police officers in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere unlike an emergency setting.”

McCarthy, a former Secret Service member best known for taking a bullet for President Ronald Reagan in a 1983 assassination attempt, told Patch in 2019 that police officers “enjoy seeing everyone come back each year to see all that’s happening with the police department, and to have a fun evening.”