National Night Out Fights Crime with Fun
by Ariel Carmona Jr.
Aug. 6-12 2005
Walnut- The city of Walnut joined thousands of other cities nationwide on Sunday in taking a stand against crime by combining their annual talent show at Creekside Park with the 22nd annual National Night Out scheduled for Tuesday August 2nd.
“National Night Out is about bringing the community together. Our talent show is put on by residents of Walnut and it gives the youth a chance to come out here and enjoy themselves” said Mary Rooney, Director of Community Services for the city who added the concept was Mayor Katy Rzonca’s idea. Rooney said one of the things Rzonca wanted to accomplish during her tenure as mayor was to bring an old time town feel to Walnut.
Mayor Pro Tem Tom King, who’s lived in Walnut since 1988, served as master of ceremonies for the event and said the city wants to convey the message that crime is not going to be tolerated in the community.
“Walnut is one of the safest communities in California,” said King who says he moved to Walnut because he has a lot of friends who are police detectives and like Simi Valley, there are a lot of police living in Walnut.
King said Walnut has an excellent school district, is low in crime and is one of the few cities in the San Gabriel Valley which isn’t having fiscal problems.
“In our city, our revenues are up 27.4 percent in sales tax alone,” said King who remarked Walnut recently received the highest marks in the history of the community in a recent phone survey administered to residents by the Rose Institute of Claremont Colleges. He attributed this to the city’s hard working staff.
Michael Kwan, captain of Walnut’s Sheriff’s station addressed the crowd before 15 acts showcasing the various talents in the community took the stage.
“You can be our eyes and ears,” said Kwan, urging the crowd to stay vigilant against possible crimes. “We pride ourselves in putting bad people in jail to make the community safer,” he said while pointing out the city’s low crime statistics can be credited to the city staff and volunteers.
Kwan said reserve officers and volunteers put in as much as 40 hours a week of their own time to help patrol the city. “They care about community service and about our parks and our schools. We know the other areas that are around us have had problems with gangs but Walnut had zero murders this year and that is very important to us,” he told the crowd who responded with enthusiastic cheers.
In ‘N Out burgers treated residents to food and was only one of the many organizations present at the event.
There were information booths manned by the Walnut Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles Walnut/Diamond Bar Sheriff’s department, Waste Management, and the Red Cross which had a booth informing residents about natural disaster preparedness in the event of earthquakes, tornados, fire and floods, and a booth representing Assemblyman Bob Huff from the 60th district.
The city of Walnut had its own booth with information on the West Nile Virus, restrictions on night time parking on city streets and volunteer jobs and internships with the city.
The talent show included a wide range of community performers including Indian dancing, poetry readings, vocalists, and piano players all of which were Walnut residents ranging from young children to students at Mt. San Antonio College.