Police Declare National Night Out A Success

are calling a huge success.

The community had 55 neighborhoods groups encompassing about 90 percent of the city get together for the annual event, according to a Police Department news release.

National Night Out is a neighborhood get-together in which residents head outside for a few hours to spend the evening with neighbors. The goal is to build community and promote crime- and drug-prevention awareness.

Last year, 52 groups got together in Hopkins. 

The department also announced the following winners of the night’s competitions.

Friendly Neighborhood Competition

A competition to see which neighborhood could collect the most school supplies and food for ResourceWest and ICA Food Shelf.

• Total collected this year: 998 pounds of food and school supplies
  • First place: 700 Block of Seventh Avenue South with more than 200 pounds (They’ll receive 20 Queen of Excelsior brunch/dinner cruise tickets from .)
  • Second place: Hobby Acres with 134 pounds
  • Third place: 100 Block of 15th Avenue North with 106 pounds
• Total collected last year: 2,170 pounds of food and school supplies

Youth Poster Competition

The Cook family won this competition with a poster showing how to keep your neighborhood safe: don’t drive fast, get to know your neighbors, have a safe meeting place in case of fire, keep your dog on a leash, lock your doors and windows. They’ll get to ride to school with McGruff the Crime Dog in the fall.