National Night Out

National Night Out is a nationwide event that is held annually on the first Tuesday in August. National Night Out was founded as a way to promote community and police relations/partnerships. It is also a way to help communities and their law enforcement officers build on their community policing strategies and skills. The first National Night Out event was held in August of 1984 and has grown tremendously over the years. The Bluffton Police Department, in conjunction with the Pandora Police Department, held their first local National Night Out event in 2014 and has hosted one every year since. For more information on National Night Out on the national level, please visit www.natw.org 

Locally, the Bluffton/Pandora National Night Out event is held at the Bluffton Community Swimming Pool. It started small in 2014 with approximately 500 community members in attendance coming to check out what the event was all about. Those in attendance were treated to hotdogs, chips, snacks, drinks, swimming, and bounce houses for the children. Once the evening was over, it was decided to make this an annual community event as the feedback from the community and officers involved was extremely positive. The event has grown over the years and we now have anywhere from 1500 to 2500 people in attendance. The swimming pool is open with free admission all day. In the evening the event begins around 6pm. We serve approximately 2000 hotdogs and bags of chips. We serve over 2500 drinks, along with countless bags of popcorn, sno-cones, and ice cream cones. Games, inflatables, and give-aways are provided for those in attendance and we also have live music on site. During the National Night Out event you will have the opportunity to speak with many of your local officers on a more personal level, and you will see them engaging in the activities going on and even serving hot dogs in the food line!     

In 2016 the weather did not cooperate for Bluffton’s annual fireworks that were traditionally held on the last weekend in June. The Chamber of Commerce approached the organizers of the National Night Out event and asked about moving the fireworks to coincide with that event. That year the Chamber of Commerce fireworks show was brought on board to close out the National Night Out event and it was such a huge hit that the Chamber of Commerce continues to hold their fireworks show at the end of this event as a wonderful way to conclude the evening and close out summer.

This event is completely community funded and no taxpayer dollars have been used to date to put this event together. We bill this event as a “leave your wallet at home” event and do not charge for anything that is provided. To keep the event running annually, it takes numerous donations from businesses and community members of Bluffton and Pandora. We collect monetary and in-kind donations for this event and without that support, this event would not be possible. 

We also rely on numerous volunteers to help us throughout the evening. Again, without the gracious community members volunteering their time to help with this event, we would not be able to put this all together for the community.  

If anyone would like to help with this event, either by donation or volunteering to help during the event, please contact Lt. Matt Oglesbee at the police department via email oglesbeem@bluffton-ohio.com