Norwood celebrates National Night Out

The sun was out, the music was bumping, and the familiar sounds of young dunk tank participants alternately taunting their friends and splashing into the water rang out through the Norwood Common on Tuesday during this year’s National Night Out (NNO).

Norwood started participating in NNO about six or seven years ago, but the tradition dates all the way back to the 1980s. At the time, cities like Boston were experiencing intense crime waves and residents were feeling trapped in their own homes. So, many joined together for flashlight community walks through the streets and called it ‘Take Back the Night.’ This evolved into NNO, and became a bridge between the community and police, giving each a night to come together and get to know one another without calling 911.

Norwood Police Chief Chris Padden said for Norwood, it’s been an amazing experience for both him and his officers.

“It’s a great opportunity for our officers to interact with people just on a beautiful night,” he said. “We throw out some food, the kids get to see the police cars, and it’s really just always a success. That’s all we’re looking to do, interact with the community.”

“The people that you don’t get a chance to interact with in a social environment – this is a great opportunity for that,” he said. “A lot of the time we’re interacting with people in a business manner as police officers, either when there’s a car accident or a car stop. This just let’s us sit out and chat.”

Padden said many of the participants were from the two classes of this year’s Norwood Police Youth Academy, which he said is getting more and more popular every year, since its start about 15 years ago.

“We have officers now who went to the Youth Academy and are on the job now,” he said. “We used to have one class per year with 25 kids. Now we have two classes and we take 45 kids per session. We have a line out the door from the kids to participate. We always hear the same lines from the kids: ‘It was my favorite week of the year, I love it, I wish I could do it again.’”

The Youth Academy does SWAT demos, helicopter landings, tours of the facilities, fitness training, boxing training from Title Boxing and more. Though Padden said the kids love the training and some even grow up to be Norwood Police Department officers, there are no official perks from the program once they become officers.

“Well, they got a job!” he said with a laugh.

Padden said this year was a little sparser than years past. Even so, more than a couple hundred residents seemed to come through during the event.

“Some years it’s busier than others, but we always get a lot of the young kids and families,” he said.

“That’s the Police Association, which is different from the department,” he said. “They raise money for things like the Post Prom Party and various charities and things like that.”

Norwood Recreation Father Mac’s Counselor and recent Norwood High School graduate Sammie Wynn said she came by to have some fun and interact with her campers, as well as hang out with some of the officers.

“I’m close friends with some of the officers here – like Rooney, Austin, McDonough – and I know them from school,” she said. “And here, I see them and today I saw, as a counselor, most of my kids out here. It was nice to see them, but it was nice to see a lot of the officers as well. You don’t often see Officer Rooney in the summer as much, so it was nice to see him.”

Wynn added that she was unsuccessful in trying to get her kids to go into the dunk tank.

“They wouldn’t do it, but I was trying to!” she said. “I would have definitely.”

Resident Gerrit Betz said he and his son came out because they saw them setting up during the Norwood Farmers Market.

“We’ve come for a couple of years,” he said. “The nice thing about Norwood is, especially in the summer, there’s just so much to do that’s chill, good for families, free and low-stakes. So on the Common I think it’s like three nights a week you’ve got concerts. Like you’ve got the bells (Carillon), Wednesday concerts, Sunday concerts, the Farmers Market – I mean we were here for the Farmers Market because we wanted to get some vegetables for dinner, and we saw the police setting up, and I thought we’ve got to come back. And tomorrow’s the concert, and we’ll come back for that, and we get to ride our bikes here.”

Betz’s son said he liked the ride, and for the first time this year got into the dunk tank.

“I saw a lot of people doing it, and I just wanted to,” he said.

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Residents Amin and Liz Fennell said they think it’s a great time for the kids.

“We started coming out when we moved here, what year was that?” Fennell said.

“It was 2021,” said Amin.

“It’s a nice community event, you get to see the neighbors, the kids love it, they get to talk to the officers and they just have a great time,” said Fennell.

“And if the kids are having fun, I’m having fun; if they like it, I love it,” said Amin.

Domino’s Pizza owner Andy Polvay said they delivered about 60 pizzas for the event.

“It’s just good to be part of things going on in the community,” he said.

Resident Andrew Broughton said he came out just to hang out.

“It’s just fun to see the police,” he said.