FAITH — The town of Faith will be debuting its first National Night Out this year with a special event planned for Aug. 3 to honor first responders and the teachers at the newly built Faith Academy and to serve as a fundraiser to benefit the families of fallen firefighters Daniel Sell and Jacob Steele.

While National Night Out is usually held on the first Tuesday in August, Dale Peeler, who is organizer for this event and serves as the chairman for the Fun in Faith Summertime Concert Series, said others have had it on weekends and they “wanted to do a big event and tie it in to honoring our first responders and our Faith Academy teachers.”

To honor the two groups, Peeler said they wanted to have tents set up and provide meet and greets with the fire departments and the Faith-Granite Police, which he noted has a new interim chief, Todd Taylor.

And the same with the staff at the school, as he said, “we got that beautiful brand new school, and this will give a really good way for them to meet our community.”

The Faith on the Town event will feature lots of activities for all ages to enjoy, most beginning at 5 p.m., including an antique first responder car and truck show, face painting by Kristie Holshouser, Magic by Glen, a bounce house, water slide, silent auction, food trucks, entertainment and a cornhole tournament.

Peeler said they had received some good items already for the silent auction; however, they were still taking donations and hoped to receive some goodie baskets to include in the auction as well.

Food trucks will be available during the event beginning at 5 p.m. Some of those that will be onsite will include This Little Piggy BBQ Smokehouse, Hibachi Heaven, Holy Cookie Dough and Kona Ice.

Entertainment, which will be held at the Faith Legion Park Bandstand, 1019 Gantt St., is also on the menu for the evening as Gavin Byrd will begin the line-up, performing from 5:30-6:15 p.m. followed by Jake Nicholas, who will play from 6:30-7:15 p.m. The third and final performers will be the Uptown Dueling Pianos from 7:30-10:30 p.m.

“They are the most fun sing-along group you could ever see,” Peeler said. “They want everybody singing with them.”

Beginning at 4 p.m., a cornhole tournament has been organized with proceeds from this event, as well as the silent auction and any donations received during the evening, going to the families of fallen Rowan-Iredell firefighters Daniel Sell and Jacob Steele.

To participate in the tournament, you must be either an active or retired first responder, military or in the medical field, Peeler said.

Cost to enter the two-person team is $50 with sign-up available either on the Fun in Faith Facebook page or by calling Peeler at 704-202-3123. There is room for 50 teams to participate with sign-up on a first-come, first served basis, he said. 

Peeler said they hope to make the tournament a tradition with a plaque containing the name of each year’s winner that would be passed around to hang up in the department of that year’s winner. They would bring the plaque back the next year to be passed to the current winner to display. Prizes will also be awarded to first, second and third place winners.

This event is sponsored by the Faith Fire Department, and all proceeds raised will go to the families of the two fallen firefighters.

Peeler said he has been a fireman since 1983, having joined the Faith Fire Department at that time, and “when something happens in our community, we’re all brothers in the first responder field because if there’s a house fire you’re not just getting Faith fire, you’re getting six surrounding fire departments with you. We all work together. We train together. We know each other well. We are like brothers. So we like to help each other out and we felt like this would be a great thing to do for them.”

Many that are participating in this event are first responders and have family that have served as well. Peeler pointed out that Yost, who is of Salisbury, is a former firefighter; Byrd’s dad is the EMS coordinator for the town of Faith; and Nicholas is a fireman in Rowan County, works full time for the Kannapolis Fire Department and his dad is a retired city fireman.

Peeler wanted to stress that this event is open to anyone that wants to come, but noted that they are “doing a celebration for our first responders.”

This Night Out on the Town for Faith is an opportunity for people to come and enjoy fun, family entertainment and have the chance to meet the area first responders and teachers, Peeler said and would encourage people to come to this first-time event and be involved in the community.

“That’s what makes a community, having involvement from the people that live within it,” he said. “And that’s what we’re doing.”