Editor:

Many residents of Brentwood celebrated the 27th annual National Night Out (NNO) on Aug. 3. They participated in neighborhood porch vigils, walks, barbecues and socials. NNO is designed to strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnership and send a message to criminals that communities are organized and fighting back.

We would like to thank all the Neighborhood Watch (NW) group leaders and residents who participated in National Night Out. We especially want to thank Community Service Officer Michele Keady for working so hard to coordinate the visits of city officials and Brentwood Advisory Neighborhood Committee (BANC) members. Thank you, Mayor Bob Taylor, Police Chief Mark Evenson and his officers, Councilmen Erick Stonebarger and Chris Bencel, and BANC members for supporting the NNO activities by visiting all the gatherings.

Furthermore, we would like to thank Fremont Bank for donating the generous basket of goodies and gift cards for the NNO Spirit award. Because the BANC committee had a hard time deciding between all the very spirited gatherings, they decided to do a drawing. The prize was awarded to the NW group leaders on Presidio Drive. Congratulations to the winner!

We all had a great time celebrating NNO. Next year we look forward to having more residents participate. Let’s continue to get the message out that we are all working together to keep our neighborhoods friendly, safe and crime free.

Dani Colbasso, Jen Fernandez, Aida Handt, Linda Nakaji, and Laurel Wilson

Co-chairs, Shadow Lake and Deer Ridge Neighborhood Watch Steering Committee