BY LOREEN BERLIN: Many cities throughout Orange County held their annual "National Night Out" recently and amongst those was the City of Garden Grove, holding its fifth such event.
The Garden Grove Neighborhood Association Community Policing Team 2015 sponsored the event on Historical Main Street last week.
The idea of the event is to raise awareness about Neighborhood Watch and to prevent crime, while building a safer and stronger community.
BY LOREEN BERLIN: Many cities throughout Orange County held their annual "National Night Out" recently and amongst those was the City of Garden Grove, holding its fifth such event.
The Garden Grove Neighborhood Association Community Policing Team 2015 sponsored the event on Historical Main Street last week.
The idea of the event is to raise awareness about Neighborhood Watch and to prevent crime, while building a safer and stronger community.
"Anytime we leave our station, it's an opportunity for us to connect with the community," said Garden Grove Fire Department Public Information Officer Thanh Nguyen. "We want people to know we are here for them 24/7 and so events like tonight are a great opportunity to connect with everyone."
Nguyen said that just by their department being out at the National Night Out shows that they care.
"We are here for more than just responding to emergency calls," he said.
Children and adults alike had the opportunity to pet the police horse, "Spirit," and were told that the horses are trained to tolerate stimulus such as balloons, pop-up tents, gunfire, fireworks, and other things they wouldn't normally experience.
Spirit is privately owned by Sgt. Jim Holder.
"A horse is a flight animal; it's OK if they startle, but we don't want them running away, which is their normal response," he said. "We work the Strawberry Festival and other events, such as the recent U.S. Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach, but we don't do regular patrol, just special events such as the Dodgers' games and festivals in resort areas where there is high traffic."
Holder explained to children that horses can live to be 25 years old and that Spirit is 12 years old. "I got him when he was a year old and that's when I began training him to be a police horse," Holder said.
Darrell Blackman, whose wife is the president of the Garden Grove Neighborhood Association, was on hand cooking free hot dogs for those in attendance; the hot dogs were all donated by the 7-11 on Nelson Street in Garden Grove.
"I'm here every year," smiled Blackman.
Garden Grove resident Tram Tran and her daughter Ivy Trinh, 6, saw the event was taking place, as Ivy left her dance lesson on Historic Main Street and stopped by.
"I think this is good," said Tran. "It's our first time, we just stopped by when we were leaving Ivy's lesson; we didn't know about it before then."
Resident Erin Dettmer said she saw the event on City Hall's Facebook page and that she and her granddaughter Avalon Bartels, 6, were enjoying themselves and looking forward to meeting the police and doing community activities.
There was a "Kids Zone" where children could make an owl hand puppet on a brown paper bag and glow-in-the-dark bracelets were handed out by the Garden Grove Girl's League and the La Quinta Boys League, along with other activities such as Jenga, which involves trying to remove a block of wood without the rest of the pile toppling over.
Emerson Klopfenstein, 3, from Garden Grove was with his grandmother, who said she is a long-time native of Garden Grove.
"My mother was born in Garden Grove in 1924; I was born here in 1954 and my grandson was born here," said Marla Beihl. "We are a generational family living close to each other and love it."
"This is really good this year. We couldn't ask for more. It's the best ever," said Scott Weimer, an Historic Main Street business owner who's active in the community.
