LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. – First responders across the Lehigh Valley swapped their emergency lights for block party fun.<\/p>\n
It’s all part of the annual National Night Out, an effort to build community trust.<\/p>\n
From Lower Saucon Township to Allentown, thousands came out to interact with local police officers, firefighters, and medical crews. For the City of Allentown police, it’s a chance to share a low stress night with the community.<\/p>\n
“It’s about getting out from behind the desk. It’s about getting out from behind the patrol car. It’s about actually interacting with our community members and putting our residents first,” Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca said.<\/p>\n
It’s also a chance to teach life-saving skills.<\/p>\n
“We’ve actually made a really big push this year doing a lot of hands only CPR,” City of Allentown Paramedics Captain Andrew Stevens said. “As long as they’re old enough and strong enough to push on a chest and know what number to call. Of course, it’s 911. We have taught a bunch of people that this year.”<\/p>\n
Officials say the goal is to expand trust and connection across every agency. But for the kids in Lower Saucon Township, the night comes with its own priorities.<\/p>\n
“Who do you think is going to win? The kids or the police?” 69 News Reporter Jessica Heisey asked.<\/p>\n
“The kids!” several children shouted.<\/p>\n
Water fights and K9 demonstrations aside, parents say that positive face to face interaction outside of an emergency situation makes a lasting impression on young people.<\/p>\n
“It’s good for, like, the kids, you know, more than anything. So, they never have sort of a bad connotation,” resident Michael Wallace said. “It’s good for them to be around them and just see, like, you know, they’re regular people, just doing a job, keeping everyone safe.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. – First responders across the Lehigh Valley swapped their emergency lights for block party fun.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,9410,734,65585,93257,813,157,106716,47303,206,294],"class_list":["post-259587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-block-party","tag-children","tag-community-trust","tag-cpr-training","tag-firefighters","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-national-night-out","tag-paramedics","tag-police","tag-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}