Return of BP’s NNO exceeds expectations
Blooming Prairie police officer Dan Peach listens as Ryder Anderson, 12, poses a question during BP’s Night Out on Aug. 5: “What’s the craziest excuse someone’s given you to get out of getting a ticket?” Peach said the one he hears most often is an urgent need to get to a bathroom. Staff photo by Kay Fate
There’s no better way to get to know someone than to throw a party for 300 people with them.
“I reached out to Chief Greg – and I’d never spoken to him before,” said Cindy Golbuff, a member of the Blooming Prairie Women of Today.
She was talking about Greg Skillestad, chief of the BP Police Department, and she was following up on a suggestion from Karen Peterson, executive director of the BP Area Chamber of Commerce.
The city hadn’t held an event for National Night Out since COVID kept everyone at home.
But as chapter manager of the Youth of Today program, Golbuff was looking for ideas “to celebrate and embrace youth, because youth are so much a part of our community.”
She pitched the idea of a community gathering to Skillestad, “and we talked for 25 minutes, and we’re all excited, bouncing ideas off each other.”
Golbuff needed to get the blessing of her chapter, “because the Blooming Prairie Women of Today are going to be a big part of this.”
And that’s how Blooming Prairie’s version of National Night Out returned after a six-year hiatus.
Skillestad said the collaboration, with the Women of Today taking the lead, was “fantastic.”
Even the rainout of the original date was a positive: After a week of hot, steamy weather, Aug. 5 turned out to be nearly perfect, with low humidity, plenty of sun and a light breeze.
The shift from a Friday night to a Wednesday allowed the organizers to invite not only businesses, civic organizations and nonprofits, but the vendors from Blossom Thyme Farmers Market, which typically sets up at Firemen’s Park.
“We didn’t want to rain on their parade,” Golbuff said, “but we said we would love to have them join us – and it just absolutely adds to this.”
They planned for 300 people – Golbuff estimated even more than that descended on Central Park.
“We wanted to make this not a carnival, but a community, bringing awareness to the different things,” she said. “Tonight is for everyone.”
The night concluded with a movie at sunset.
Several sponsors also came forward, with KIK Marketing, B to Z Hardware, Cargill, Tandem, BPACC, Blossoms United, Hormel, Hy-Vee and more donating time, goods and money.
Still, she said, “National Night Out is about so much more than an evening of fun. It's about neighbors meeting neighbors, families making memories, children getting to know the officers and first responders who serve them.”
Seeing so many people, “and watching our community come together reminded us just how fortunate we are to live in a town that cares for one another,” she said.
“We already are thinking big for next year.”
