P a ge 18 t opside V olume 79 , I s s u e 4
Division 19 and Multiple National Night Out Events By Rick Young , PA1 , SO-PA
“ When Flotilla 19-05 was first invited to participate in Lower Windsor Township ’ s event for National Night Out it seemed like a natural thing for a Division 19 event ,” explained Dave Blechertas , flotilla commander for 19-05 .
The immediate reaction was that since Station Long Level on the Susquehanna River is located in Lower Windsor Township our participation at that event seemed obvious . At the July division meeting Flotillas 19-01 , 19-04 and 19-05 all announced their intent to participate . However , within days Flotilla 19-01 elected to join with 19-02 at Goldsboro and Flotilla 19-04 was invited to a similar event at Manor Township in Lancaster County . Soon the problem became one of balancing staffing to assure good coverage . The solution was for Gregg Bollinger , Ed Seda and Jeff Wilt from 19-04 to attend the Manor Township event and Rick Young would work with Dave Blechertas and Jeff Kuhn from 19-05 at Lower Windsor Township . Flotillas 19-01 and 19-02 had already agreed to work together .
Among the three locations , in addition to the Auxiliary , representation was variously from the local police , county sheriff , multiple fire companies , EMTs , River Rescue , Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission , Pennsylvania Game Commission , and K-9 Volunteer Rescue . All of the events were well very attended by both adults and children . Lots of boating safety literature was distributed , but coloring books for the children was a popular attraction . It was also a perfect opportunity to engage members of the community and articulate the Auxiliary ’ s key mission in recreational boating safety by promoting our courtesy vessel examinations and public education as well as marine safety and environmental protection . At the end of the evening the various event organizers were duly pleased with the Auxiliary ’ s presence and as a division we are enthusiastic to say that we have already been invited back for next year .
National Night Out , began in 1984 as an outgrowth of several small events in southeastern Pennsylvania , now involves nearly 40 million people in 16,000 communities nationwide . From its origin of just having folks sit on their front porch and having their light on , it has evolved into numerous widespread major community events where residents can mingle with personnel from fire , police , emergency services and others .
In short , all it took was that one invitation to have an entire division participate in a major public affairs event but to also lay the groundwork for a return engagement next year — the lesson is to never leave any stone unturned ! To quote Division 19 VCDR Ed Seda , “ This was a great event for getting the Auxiliary ’ s presence better known in the community .”
Continued on the next page ...