Around 4pm on Saturday night, Commander Fran Marrocco scanned Memorial Park for the 18th National La Grange Park Night and was pleased with the turnout so far.
“We’re busy,” he said. “It will really pick up later when it gets a little cooler.”
In fact, by 7:30 p.m., the crowd in the park swelled to about 500, proving the man who was the Police Department’s point man for this year’s National Night right Out.
“It’s been a steady, steady turnout all day,” Police Chief Tim Contois said. “We have a lot of great people here, great conversations and great interactions.”
La Grange Park is one of 156 cities in Illinois participating in the event that has grown from a small neighborhood gathering in suburban Pennsylvania to a national phenomenon.
The National Night Out website describes the event as a “community-building campaign” that promotes “police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie.”
It began in the early 1970s when officials in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion started a community watch event that in 1981 became the National City Watch Association and then morphed into the first event of the national night in 1984.
In the days leading up to the event, Marrocco echoed the founder’s sentiments about community-police partnerships.
“It’s a day for the community to see us not just as police officers, but as members of the community,” he said.
And the community was well represented on this cool summer night.
Event sponsors came from both La Grange Park and the surrounding communities.
In addition to the Village of La Grange Park, other city sponsors included the La Grange Park Public Library, Community Park District, La Grange Park Ace Hardware, Plymouth Place Senior Living and Posto 31 Restaurant.
Neighboring community sponsors were from Westchester’s Hancock Engineering, a company that contracts with several local municipalities, Pillars Community Health of La Grange and Joe’s Saloon and Hitzeman Funeral Home and Cremations, both of Brookfield.
Another village sponsor was the family of Village Councilor Mike Sheehan and his wife, Michelle.
“This has been great so far,” Sheehan said, noting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. “After two and a half years we were able to make something like this happen. With these people (the Police) looking after us 365 days a year, it’s the least we can do.”
New to this year’s Night Out were five local restaurants serving food, including Brookfield’s award-winning Beach Avenue BBQ.
For the kids, there were two bounce houses and a splash tank for anyone who wanted to get a little wet.
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This year’s National Night Out also featured live music for the first time, including Evil Burrito, Alex Schroeder and Fletcher Rockwell.
This year’s event also included a charity golf outing the following day at Flagg Creek and a public safety parade on August 2nd.
The musicians had no problems getting into the spirit of the evening.
“We had a good set today,” Evil Burrito bassist Raul Parra said after the popular local band opened the show. “It’s always nice to get out and do something for the community.”
Country-rocker Alex Schroeder, who was following Evil Burrito, stood listening to the group Fletcher Rockwell following his act with a big smile on his face.
“Tonight is amazing,” he said, adding that he has attended several National Night Out community events and no city did it better than La Grange Park.
Western Springs residents Chris and Cassandra Frigo attended with their daughter Lillian and their six-year-old Swiss Mountain Dog.
“That’s nice,” Chris said. “We’re not high maintenance and we like going to events like these.”
Cassandra pointed out the main reason for the event.
“It’s for a good cause,” he said.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for the Pioneer Press.
