National Night Out Celebrations in Rockford Illinois

Unfortunately the Stateline has been plagued with a lot of violence and crime recently, but building relationships with your neighbors and law enforcement officials is a great way to combat it, and that is what National Night Out is all about.

The purpose of a National Night Out celebration is simple; to provide an opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances. Most celebrations include not only meet and greets with your local police and fire personnel, but tours of fire trucks, ambulances and squad cars; parades; safety demonstrations; live entertainment and more.

It's important to be familiar with the people and situations of your surroundings, and also to show your kids that cops and firemen are nothing to be scared of.

Here's a few of the local National Night Celebrations going on tonight, so be sure to grab the entire family and head out to the nearest park and participate.

• Belvidere - 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. - Four Seasons Dream Homes at 700 Chrysler Drive - Festivities begin with a parade starting at Pearl Street and Seasons Parkway, and concludes at the Four Seasons Pool Park.
• Cherry Valley - 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Baumann Park
• Loves Park - 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. - Loves Park City Hall at 100 Heart Blvd.
• Machesney Park - 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Machesney Crossings at the corner of 251 and 173.
• Rockford - 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. - Fairgrounds Park at 910 Acorn

Your neighborhood not on that list? Please leave all the details about your community's National Night Out celebration in the comments section below so we can all be in the know.