Top: A color guard from 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, takes center stage Aug. 2 during the playing of the national anthem at the start of National Night Out at Adirondack Creek Community Center at Fort Drum. National Night Out is held on the first Tuesday in August across the U.S. to unite law enforcement and neighborhoods in a community celebration. Above left: Fort Drum community members watch a military working dog team from the 8th Military Police Detachment demonstrate their skills during the event. Above right: McGruff the Crime Dog was among the special guests greeting family members. (Photos by Mike Strasser, Fort Drum Garrison Public Affairs)
Fort Drum community celebrates National Night Out
Mike Strasser
Fort Drum Garrison Public Affairs
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (Aug. 3, 2022) – Fort Drum families gathered outside Adirondack Creek Community Center on Aug. 2 to celebrate National Night Out – a community-building event that promotes law enforcement partnerships and safety in neighborhoods across the U.S.
This year’s event offered free food, games and entertainment for community members, and it encouraged them to get to know their local first responders, which included fire personnel, police officers, military police and their military working dogs, and members of the Fort Drum Bike Patrol in attendance.
Dean Harrison, Mountain Community Homes project director, said he was appreciative of the turnout – in the midst of a heavy downpour – and the sponsors who supported the event. He said that it demonstrated how the Fort Drum community is able to come together and make the best of any situation.
“We are really excited to be here and to host National Night Out again,” he said. “It’s a nationwide event, but nobody does it better than Fort Drum.”
The weather actually brought community members closer together as they huddled inside tents and found cover from the rain, after grabbing a slice of pizza or hot dog from one booth, or cotton candy and sno-cones from another. And it didn’t deter children from getting hugs and high-fives from Sparky the Fire Dog and McGruff the Crime Dog, either.
Spc. Tristan Borostowski has served at Fort Drum for four years with the 227th Military Police Detachment's conservation law enforcement section, and this was his first time at National Night Out.
“This is a real privilege for me to be here,” he said. “I work mostly in the training area, so I don’t really get a lot of interaction with the community and they don’t see me as much as other MPs. So this is a good opportunity for me to meet people and let them know what we do.”
Photos from the event can be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/drum10thmountain/albums/72177720301021410.