HOWELL – Hundreds of residents in the Howell community came together on August 3 to support local law enforcement and emergency services at National Night Out.
What began in the 80s with people leaving their porch light on to come out against crime, National Night Out has evolved into a large community event bringing together law enforcement and emergency services, all together in one night to support each other.
The goal for this annual campaign is to strengthen the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement, bringing positivity to the area.
“Here in Howell, we do events all the time throughout the year, so this is nothing new to us,” Howell Police Chief Andrew Kudrick said. “Our community, we’re engaged with them throughout the entire year. This is the one night that we’re all together, besides Howell Day. This is where all the emergency services are together, our vendors are all together, and we celebrate as one because it’s a partnership. Police, Fire, EMS, our communities and businesses, we’re all together, we’re all on the same team here.”
A major part of National Night Out in Howell was celebrating all the cadets who graduated from the 11th Annual Youth Law Enforcement Boot Camp. The camp is put on in collaboration with Howell PAL and Howell Police.
After not having the Youth Boot Camp last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the camp welcomed the most cadets it’s ever had, with 48 kids between 6th and 8th grade graduating.
“It just goes to show you that the community, they want to do events. I think what happens is over the past year, they have seen law enforcement get tarnished by some people in the media, by some community groups, when we know that’s not the true narrative,” Kudrick said. “So, the support for law enforcement now that we see is greater than ever. People want to come out and support us because they understand what law enforcement had been going through for over the past year and a half.”
“It’s great to see all these kids. There’s 50 in this class and we had 20 on a waiting list. COVID took us back. We had to stop a lot of the events that we were doing. We had discussions back at the PD and we were just waiting for that window of opportunity to launch it (Youth Boot Camp). Let’s see if we get the community’s support and as soon as we did it filled up within a couple weeks,” Kudrick added.
During the graduation ceremony, several cadets were recognized for achievements on top everyone receiving their camp certificates. The following cadets earned awards:
- Chief’s Award: Samuel Polyanskiy
- Top Gun Award: Elliot Dahm
- PT Award: Tanner Hodgins
- Academic Award: Daniel Schenck
Kudrick explained how they’re already planning on expanding the program next year so that more kids will have the chance to join.
“We’re talking about expanding it, allowing even more kids come in next year and splitting the class. We want to give every kid the opportunity because we want to expose as many people to this profession, to show how positive and honorable it is. It’s a great program. I’m a product of the police cadets. I joined the police department when I was 16 years old, and here I am 28 years later,” Kudrick said.
