Residents enjoy Moses Lake's National Night Out

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake Police Department Chief Dave Ruffin and Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones spent most of their Tuesday night under water.

Ruffin and Jones - who took turns sitting in a giant dunk tank - were two of the more popular attractions during the town's National Night Out celebration in downtown Moses Lake.

"I've been dunked a lot tonight, almost nonstop," Ruffin said. "But this is a lot of fun."

Hundreds of Moses Lake residents visited Sinkiuse Square during the annual event to check out police cars and fire trucks, have dinner and ice cream with law enforcement personnel and participate in various children's activities - in addition to trying their hand at sending Ruffin and Jones into the dunk tank.

Ruffin said he was glad to see so many families out for the event. "It's great so see the community come out to learn about crime prevention and talk with us about our crime prevention efforts," he said.

National Night Out is a nationwide event that is designed to enhance awareness of crime prevention. More than 36 million people in 16,000 communities across the country participate in the event.

This is the fourth year the celebration has taken place in Moses Lake. The Moses Lake Business Association partnered with MLPD to host the event.

MLPD's Olivia Martinez said there were also numerous other agencies and organizations helped make the event a success. The Moses Lake Community Prevention Coalition, Big Bend Community College, Central Basin Traffic Safety Task Force and Emergency Management were among the groups at the event.

"We were able to get all these people in one place, to help the community get familiar not only with our police officers but with all the organizations and resources they might need," she said. "Some people may not know about some of these groups so this was a way for them to find out about them."

Moses Lake resident Ruth Medina said National Night Out is a great way to get people familiar with law enforcement and other safety personnel. She brought her niece and nephew to the event this year - the third year she has done so.

"It's just a great community thing," she said. "It's a great way to learn about safety."

Medina said it's also a lot of fun for the kids. Her nephew Emanuel Sandoval, 4, and his sister Carolina, 2, enjoyed sitting in a fire truck the most, she said.

Angelo Crowell, 7, of Moses Lake, also seemed to enjoy checking out the vehicles on display during the event. His mom, Acashia Crowell, said this was the first time they attended.

"We came because it's something to do," she said as she took Angelo's picture in the driver's seat of a fire truck. "But he's having a lot of fun, I can tell."