Pictured (left to right): Humboldt County Detention Center Administrative Clerk Kathi Wolfsteller, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Captain Sean Wilkin, Humboldt County Sheriff Angel Cardenas.
The Ninth Annual National Night Out takes place on Tues. Aug. 1, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the soccer fields next to the Winnemucca Boys & Girls Club and is a great opportunity to interact with local law enforcement, first responders and other important community partners.
National Night Out occurs on the same night across the nation for all participants and it is about community interaction and celebrating a partnership between local law enforcement and the public.
“The goal of National Night Out is to bring together a social fun environment where local law enforcement can interact with people from the community and be able to just kind of come out and have some fun with everybody and have an overall positive event,” explained Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) Patrol Captain Sean Wilkin.
There will be free hot dogs grilled up by the local Volunteer Firefighters and other food trucks, popsicles and swag bags from the HCSO, booths from all sorts of different community resources, businesses, and entities, and music and activities—like the splash pad— for kids, according to HCSO officials.
“I think this benefits the community because everybody can come see who our agencies are… Winnemucca Domestic Violence will be there, Juvenile Services will be there, the courts will be there, and more. So [the community is] going to be able to see all the various booths and see what our community actually has,” said Humboldt County Detention Center Administrative Clerk Kathi Wolfsteller, who helps organize various parts of the event.
Local law enforcement, first responders and others will be there to answer questions and interact with the public—especially kids.
“It’s good for the community to come in and just see and ask what we’re all about. Maybe they’re even looking for a job or asking about different entities and different aspects of law enforcement of the Emergency Services, Fire Department, and so all of us will have a booth there and we’ll be glad to answer any questions that the public has,” explained HCSO Sheriff Angel cardenas.
New to this year’s event, according to Wolfsteller, will be booths from local utility companies, like gas companies and NV Energy, and the HCSO has even invited the railroad to come and give out safety information.
“We’ve asked the railroad to possibly come and have safety information to give to the kids for if you’re home alone—like what not to do around railroad tracks. So we’re hoping that they’re going to be there as well to hand out some of their information,” explained Wolfsteller.
According to Sheriff Cardenas, National Night Out has grown from the parking lot of the detention center, to Vesco Park, to now the recreation center.
“This year there’ll be more room for more emergency vehicles. And we’re gonna have vehicles like the ambulances, fire department, sheriff’s office, police department, search and rescue— all kinds of emergency services throughout the town. We’ll have tours for the kids and they can walk into vehicles, they can see what the fire department vehicles look like and they’ll have the sirens on and the lights on and so it’ll be fun for the community,” said Cardenas.
Of course the event would not be possible without the help of all of the local entities that come and create a great event for the public.
“It’s good that we’re able to take that whole community approach to it. Because you know, without the organizations that come up and participate, it wouldn’t be successful. And so having these other entities within our community, the different resource groups, utility companies, all of them coming together is what allows us to have an event and so it really is a benefit,” said Wilkin.
“The people who’ve worked with over the years have been just great to work with and it’s been very consistent. So we’ve seen a lot of community support for us as we’ve gone on as well.”