Making connections
Mattawa Officer Edgar Villa, left and Joao Garcia have a chat over snow cones at National Night Out Friday.
CHERYL SCHWEIZER/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Contestants in the doughnut-eating contest found that eating a doughnut without hands required some maneuvering. The contest was part of National Night Out sponsored by the Mattawa Police Department.
Albert Reyes works through a three-pound burrito in the burrito-eating contest during the Mattawa Police Department’s National Night Out. The eventual champion, Greg Miller of Grant County Fire District 8, is in the background.
A curious child tries on a Stryker driver’s helmet.
Javier Rodriguez, left, and Kay Monroe, right of the Washington National Guard pose for picture with a native of the Rodriguez family’s Mexican hometown while children play on the Stryker personnel carrier they brought to National Night Out.
Children try their hand - or rather, no hands - at the doughnut-eating contest.
Mattawa Police officers check the video to see who really won the doughnut-eating contest during National Night Out.
Contestants chow down on burritos during the burrito-eating contest.
Mattawa Police officers served snow cones during National Night Out, and the popcorn for the movie that followed.
MATTAWA — Joao Garcia was interested in all those mysterious things carried by Mattawa Police Department officer Edgar Villa, and Villa explained them all. Garcia was also intrigued by the police vehicles, lights flashing, sitting on the lawn in Hund Park.
Villa invited him to take a look inside — Garcia could even sit in the police car if he wanted, Villa said.
That’s the point of National Night Out, said MPD Chief Robert Salinas, to give residents a chance to meet the law enforcement officers in a whole different setting. The department sponsored its second National Night Out Friday.
“It’s a positive way for the community to see the officers that work for them,” Salinas said.
MPD sponsored National Night Out in conjunction with the August outdoor movie night sponsored by the City of Mattawa.
The park was filled with cool fire trucks and ambulances, police vehicles and an ATV from the US Bureau of Land Management’s law enforcement division. The vehicle that got most of the attention was the Stryker personnel carrier brought by the Washington National Guard. Children were invited to go inside and take a look and a few adults took advantage of the offer too.
Some Mattawa-area orchards employ H2A workers, some of whom made the trek to the park. Javier Rodriguez, a sergeant in the National Guard, struck up a conversation with them, and discovered they were natives of his family’s hometown in Mexico, he said. He posed for pictures with them.
It being movie night there were contests, and it being National Night Out, some of those contests involved first responders. There was some dispute, at least initially, over who won the doughnut-eating contest. Grant County Fire District 8 Chief Matt Hyndman appeared to be the winner, but a review of the video showed the title actually went to MPD Officer Leo Barajas, by the slimmest of margins.
The burrito-eating contest — massive burritos, too, a couple of pounds - was even closer, almost a dead heat. The GCFD 8 crew did better in that one, with resident firefighter Greg Miller just edging out defending champion Albert Reyes.
“It was a good race. I thought I had it, actually,” Reyes said.
Jose Alvarez represented the Columbia Basin Health Association at the burrito table and said it was a challenge.
“It’s a lot harder than it looks,” he said.
The MPD distributed snow cones and later provided popcorn for the movie. Other organizations and agencies had information booths.
“More than anything, this is community engagement,” Barajas said.
A Mattawa native, Barajas said he wanted people to come up and ask him questions, and maybe just spend a little time talking. The officers and residents will get to know each other better and recognize each other when they are out and about in town, he said.
“Breaking the ice with the community,” Barajas said.
Cheryl Schweizer may be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.
