Despite dark clouds, a distant bolt of lightning and a few raindrops as Salisbury Township’s first annual National Night Out community gathering began 6 p.m. Aug. 1, community residents numbering in the hundreds came to Salisbury High School to meet their community’s police officers, first responders and neighbors.

Event organizer Salisbury Police Department Cpl. Chris Casey said he was thrilled with the turnout.

“We posted the event on local social media and there was a lot of neighbor-to-neighbor chatter that really boosted our turnout,” Casey said. “Another thing that really was encouraging was to see the spirit of the volunteers who made the event possible.”

Those volunteers served food, ran games for children, judged desserts brought by neighborhood bakers and helped run the popular dunk tank offering opportunities for youngsters and not-so-youngsters to send Salisbury police patrol officers into the tank. A number of workers provided logistical support to keep the event running smoothly.

A musical group that started out many years ago as a teenage garage band, Shake, Rattle & Soul, provided amplified musical oldies which had attendees dancing in the high school driveway.

In the high school’s upper parking lot, Western and Eastern Salisbury firefighters and local ambulance corps displayed emergency equipment, gave out junior firemen helmets and let children try on real emergency turnout gear.

To the delight of everyone nearby, fire and rescue workers received an emergency call to the interstate and responded with light and sirens – an up-close view of what volunteer emergency crews do every day.

“All in all,” Casey said, “this was a great first-year event. I’m already looking forward to next summer’s community turnout.”