PARKVIEW — DeKalb Memorial Park was alive Tuesday evening - despite the threat of rain - with the sounds of children's laughter and the smells of grilled hot dogs to a musical oldies-but-goodies soundtrack of Ben E. King, Aretha Franklin and James Brown.
The party at the park for this unincorporated DeKalb County community was one of several held across metro Atlanta and across the country as communities nationwide celebrated National Night Out.
Billed as “America’s Night Out Against Crime,” the event, now in its 30th year, aims to get neighborhood residents out for an evening of fun promote the importance of civic involvement and stress the importance of the relationships between neighborhoods and police and fire officials.
As part of the local festivities, the Parkview Civic Association, which organized the park event, raffled off prizes and desserts and handed out back-to-school goodie bags to the neighborhood children.
An estimated 37 million people in 15,000 communities across the United States and Canada are expected to participate this year, according to the National Association of Town Watch, the umbrella organization based in Wynnewood, Pa.
This year's 'Night Out' in Atlanta, which included events in Reynoldstown, Edgewood, East Lake and Old Fourth Ward, took on special significance as many of those communities have experienced an increase in crime this summer.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.