Granite Quarry brings back National Night Out; Rockwell debuts event
Published 12:10 am Thursday, August 8, 2024
Michelle and Brian Correll, who founded Elite Jeeps, are strong supporters of Back the Blue and brought their Jeep, decorated to show that support, to Tuesday's National Night Out in Granite Quarry. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
Folks at To the Point Dance Company offered face painting at Tuesday's National Night Out in Granite Quarry. Photo by ES
Patch Adams, a nine-year-old black Labrador mix, was the unofficial greeter in Granite Quarry Tuesday during National Night Out. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
A K9 officer from Rowan County Sheriff's Office was happy to get to know those attending Tuesday's National Night Out. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
His usual line is "help take a bite out of crime," but during National Night Out, McGruff and other officers were reminding kids that they should always prefer to be in the front seat of a police cruiser, not the back seat. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
Rockwell Police Chief Cody Trexler grills up hot dogs during Rockwell's National Night Out Event on Tuesday.
Local band Crimson Mist's guitarist joins the crowd during the Rockwell National Night Out event on Tuesday.
Members of Rockwell, Gold Hill and Rockwell Rural fire departments brought their equipment out for the "touch-a-truck" event during National Night Out.
GRANITE QUARRY — With just over two weeks to plan a National Night Out event in town, Debbie Loflin-Benge got busy and managed to pull off a well-attended and engaging event at Granite Lake Park.
Loflin-Benge is the events coordinator for the town, but said she didn’t want to make it a committee event, relying instead on “wonderful volunteers,” though two committee members did help.
There were 13 booths at the event, in addition to appearances by McGruff, Sparky the Fire Dog and Chase from Paw Patrol. The Granite Quarry police and fire departments were on hand to meet attendees and show off vehicles and equipment, and Rowan County Sheriff’s Office had staff at the event to show off the department’s Bear Cat, which is less than a year old, a new boat for water patrol and rescue and one of the department’s K9s.
“This is great,” said interim Granite Quarry Police Chief Todd Taylor, who noted he has hoped to restart the event for some time. “It’s just so good to see people out here, getting to know us, seeing local businesses and coming together for a good reason. And the weather has cooperated beautifully.”
Rain earlier in the day cooled temperatures down slightly, and there was a breeze in the 6-8 p.m. event, but there was no rain.
Loflin-Benge said when she was asked if she could make it happen, she said all she could do was try.
“I reached out to local businesses, and they either said ‘how can we help,’ or they said ‘we want to have a booth and do face painting or whatever activity,’ and you can’t ask for better than that.”
The Hot Dog Shack and Happy Farms made sure people were fed, and Mosso Racing had one of their race cars on hand.
Participating businesses, churches and groups included To the Point Dance Company, The Terri Hess House, SECU, Grateful Hearth Community Services, Students in Training, Taps In the Park, Project Light, Infinity, Rowan Christian Assembly and Elite Jeeps among others.
Brian and Michelle Correll, who started the group Elite Jeeps in Rowan County, say they are avid Back the Blue supporters, and they brought their fully decked out Jeep Wrangler for kids to touch the lights and the duck on the front of the Jeep that quacks and makes noise.
“I think kids nowadays don’t have a lot of respect for police,” said Brian Correll. “We want to help kids realize that police are friends.” The couple created the Jeep group in April as a way for Jeep owners to get together for positive engagement.
Amy Young, director of Project Light, said their group was on hand to continue to educate parents and children about being safe on the internet.
“People don’t understand that human trafficking is in their back yard,” she said. “Parents need to pay attention to their children’s online activity, who they engage with, what personal information they are sharing, where they are posting photos. Education is key.”
Everyone who participated or attended said they were glad to have the event back, and “I hope to see it grow,” said Kevin Fuller of Rowan Christian Assembly.
An unexpected visitor, Patch Adams, a nine-year-old black Labrador retriever, became the unofficial ambassador, greeting everyone coming in with tail wags and all the kisses they would allow.
“This is great for local businesses and the community,” said Deanie Ribelin of To the Point Dance. “Connection is essential and we’ve not been doing that, so we’re glad to see people coming out.”
“The community needs to see new faces of businesses, and they need to see us not just at our locations, but participating in town events,” added her daughter, Dana. “This is important for people so they know who we are and know that we are invested.”
“I hope we get back to doing this every year,” said Taylor.
Rockwell hosts first National Night Out event
ROCKWELL — Even though several other events throughout the area got canceled due to forecasted rain, Rockwell’s first National Night Out event went off without a hitch on Tuesday night.
National Night Out is an annual event that aims to connect communities with their local police departments throughout the nation on the first Tuesday in August. Tuesday’s event was the first time that the town of Rockwell joined in on the festivities, said Mayor Pro Tem Chris Cranford.
“It’s great, I hope this helps the community be more involved in things like this around town. I’d liked to have seen us have standing-room only, but we’ve got to start somewhere,” said Cranford.
Cranford also pointed out that the turnout could have been decreased both by the weather forecast as well as both East Rowan High School and Erwin Middle School’s open house being scheduled for the same time.
As part of the event, the town had emergency vehicles from their police and fire departments as well as inviting Rockwell Rural Fire Department and Gold Hill Volunteer Fire Department to bring vehicles for a “touch-a-truck” attraction.
The members of the town police department also set up a tent and grill and provided free hot dogs and refreshments for all attendees. Rockwell Police Chief Cody Trexler said that the department had handed out close to 200 hot dogs by the end of the event.
“It’s great to be able to give back to the community. They always stand behind us, so it’s great to be able to turn around and help them,” said Trexler.
The police department also helped turn the event into a small back-to-school supply drive, as they provided free backpacks to members of the community. Trexler said that the backpacks came from Restoration City Church in Kannapolis. He had been working an event there with his inflatable rental company and noticed that they had supplies left over from their own supply drive. He offered to take the backpacks and distribute them on Tuesday, and he said that he also sent some to the Spencer and Granite Quarry police departments for their own drives.
The town also brought out food trucks and live music, including bands Crimson Mist and Lounge Fly, as part of the event.
Although this was the first iteration of the event, Cranford said that he hoped the town could build off of it and continue to bring more and more of the community together in the future.
