The 2024 National Night Out (NNO)proved to be quite a challenge this year. As the Maple Shade Police Chaplain Corp, the Maple Shade Police Chaplain Association (MSPCA – A NJ Non-profit), the Maple Shade Police Department and PBA Local #267 prepared to roll out the event, the weather forecast took a terrible turn for both our selected day of Tuesday August 6th and our rain date of Wednesday August 7th. Never has this happened to us before. Determined to press ahead with the event, we reached out to our wonderful Superintendent of Schools Beth Norcia and she offered up the Maple Shade High School gyms as a location to host the event. In addition, Superintendent Norcia also offered up her maintenance staff to assist as well. With less than 24 hours before we started our on site prep, we conducted a major shift by hosting the 2024 NNO Event at the Maple Shade High School and almost completely indoors. It was 100% the right decision to make (especially as thunderstorms rolled through later in the evening)!
With a new location and completely new set up, our team scrambled to assemble the event indoors. With lots of help from the school staff and our terrific volunteers, we were able to pull it off. A big thank you to our wonderful sponsors as we once again were able to keep this as a FREE FAMILY FUN EVENT! Our main food vendors included Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Dominic’s Food Truck, the Sub Shoppe, Crust and Fire, the Custard Stand and many more. There were lots of activities for both young and old to include a specialized kid’s zone with bounce houses, balloon artists and face painters. Overall, thousands of people passed through the event and we are so thankful for the ability to pivot indoors. It has given us a new way to view this event moving forward and to account for unpredictable weather patterns especially during the month of August. Thank you to everyone who made this event a success and for all those who joined us on this special night! We look forward to seeing you all again in 2025!
