National Night Out Brings neighbors together
EDIE ZUVANICH Special to the Press
HUTTO — A chance to meet their neighbors and the first responders who serve their area brought hundreds of Hutto residents out of their homes on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 3 for National Night Out.
“We’re all out here so we can meet the neighbors as they come together and give everybody an opportunity to meet the people who serve them in a fun environment,” said Lieutenant Nate Spraggins with Hutto Police Department.
Spraggins and his fellow officers from Hutto PD were joined by members of Hutto Independent School District Police Department, Hutto Fire Rescue, Williamson County Precinct 4, Williamson County Emergency Medical Services and Hutto Citizens Academy. The separate agencies worked together to create teams of first responders that visited all 13 of the neighborhoods who registered their parties with the city.
Dixie Putzier, one of the coordinators of the Hutto Town Square National Night Out party said it’s always a fun event for a good cause. Her neighborhood party was held at a swimming pool and included an inflatable bounce house and slide for the kids, as well as free food and games.
“We are hoping that everyone will come meet our wonderful first responders and bridge that gap in getting the community members and all of the police and everybody together on the same page,” Putzier said.
Amy Benson, who took daughter Winona Colvard to the event at Peterson Community Garden in Old Town, said it was a good chance to meet neighbors.
“So many of us live near each other but don’t know each other which is an unfortunate feature of modern life, so this is great,” she said as her daughter played with some stickers given to her by police officers.
Spraggins said the opportunity to interact with children is one of the best parts of the event.
“It gives us the chance to start building relationships with the kids, so they lose some of that fear and inhibition of seeing somebody in a uniform being scary,” he said. “It’s now the guy who’s handing out stickers and having a conversation with them.”
