VOICES National Night Out: Golden Night in the Park

Did you know that this coming Tuesday, e City of Golden is going to be a part of a huge national event involving millions of people? Probably not, but I’m going to ll you in on the details here, so read on. Don’t worry, we aren’t going to have a human avalanche of all those people heading to Golden, they will all be participating from their own hometowns.

e Golden Police Department will present our portion of National Night Out: Golden Night in the Park.

So, what’s this all about? Started in Philadelphia back in 1970, National Night Out is an annual communitybuilding campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live. It’s designed to enhance the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community. It also provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.

Millions of neighbors take part in the event across thousands of communities from all 50 states. Neigh- borhoods host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and various other community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, visits from emergency personnel, exhibits and more.

So, almost every city in the country will be hosting its own version and here in Golden, ours will be happening from 5-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 1 in Parfet Park. at’s the one on the corner of 10th Street and Washington Avenue.

Our Golden Police Department will have o cers there to meet in a less formal environment than you usually come into contact with them. You’ll have a chance to get to know several of our local o cers a bit better as well as learn more about what they do in a fun- lled family event that they present every year. ey will have face painting, hot dogs, police vehicles to climb in and if possible, they will even have a helicopter landing. ere will also be folks there to provide a lot of safety tips as well as some very important crime prevention information for you.

So, they invite you to turn on your porch light, lock your doors and come down to join the fun. You can get more information about National Night Out by going to www.natw.org.

I have to say something about Parfet Park. When I was growing up here in Golden, it was just a little park across the street from my junior high. After school the kids would sort of congregate there for an hour or so, but other than that it didn’t get a whole lot of use. ey didn’t schedule too many events there 50 years ago and it was just kind of a grassy corner of the town. We didn’t have a whole lot of visitors coming to Golden and it was just a little quiet spot most of the time.

Flash forward to today and wow, what a di erence! e place has something going on almost every weekend and loads of people congregate there all summer. Tubers take a break there, people set up volleyball nets and the sleepy little park has turned into a wonderful spot that is always lled with activity. And it’s always clean with a healthy lawn and loads of smiling faces. Hats o to our city crews for maintaining the park that has somehow morphed into a centerpiece of downtown Golden.

Let’s be honest, our entire downtown has grown into a really vibrant scene with lots of cool shops, great restaurants everywhere, loads of brew pubs and bars plus an entire mountain creek lled with activities to check out. People from all over the world have discovered just how cool and unique Golden has become and our tourist numbers have increased dramatically since I grew up around here.

So, do yourself a favor and spend a little more time downtown. Bring your camera, there’s always a great photo opportunity happening. Walk your dogs, do a little window shopping, say hello to some of the people on the street, and maybe grab a bite or a cool one along the way. It doesn’t matter which day of the week, Golden is just a fun place for people to hang out. And just so you know…Hanging out on a Saturday afternoon is how I met my wife.