By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
National Community Night Out is celebrated by police departments across the country the first week in August.
It's an annual community-building campaign started in 1984 that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie.
The Hays Police Department (HPD) participated on Thursday evening by providing a free hamburger/hotdog feed at the Hays Aquatic Park (HAP), where free swimming is also available to the public.
The cooks and line servers were volunteer HPD officers and staff, out of uniform, smiling and looking relaxed in their casual T-shirts and shorts.
They visited with the hungry swimmers and their families waiting patiently in line for the burgers, dogs, chips, cookies and pop, enough to feed 1,000 people, thanks to generous donors.
Or maybe fewer than 1,000 people.
"We get some coming through two or three times and the kids just seem to really enjoy it," said Brian Dawson, deputy police chief.
"It's fun for everyone involved to hang out and have a good time.
"We do get to talk to them and say thanks for their support and we get a lot of thanks back as well."
Dawson said "it's good for them to not always see (the police) in uniform, to see that they are a person and a member of the community, seeing them in a little different light.
Manning the grill this year was Det. Chris Hancock, who Dawson said is the "number one guy to pull this together."
Hancock joked he "drew the short straw" when it came to flipping the burgers and dogs but he has "all the experience in the world" and they were "guaranteed to be extremely tasty." With the temperature well above the century mark, even at 6 p.m., Hancock was glad for the breeze. "Keeps the smoke out of our eyes and keeps the bugs away," he said while moving the meat off the grill and into aluminum trays for serving.
"You can consider this community police work, community policing," Dawson said, "with a little different uniform on."
The free food and swimming at HAP has been "pretty successful. We usually have pretty good crowds, even when the weather isn't so favorable."
A limited number of free "Community Night Out" T-shirts are also handed out.
Paxton Weber, 8, Hays, brought his family and his sister's friend "for the cops, and to swim and to have fun."
Both of Paxton's grandfathers served as law enforcement officers. He's been collecting police patches and coins - he figures he has about 500 total so far - and even got to attend a national police conference in Washington, D.C.
HPD first offered the event in 2017 but didn't do it during the COVID pandemic due to health concerns.
According to Dawson, the police department has been talking about different ideas to make "Community Night Out" a little different next year.
"We really appreciate this community and everything they do for us, so we like to give back."