The first thing a visitor to the Feb. 23 community breakfast at the Macungie VFW social hall at 287 Lehigh St., Macungie, might notice is that it is loud. Then, they’d notice a lot of veteran’s service caps. Then, amid the raucous banter, it would become apparent that everyone was smiling and laughing and having a good old-time neighborhood get together. You were in the kind of place where everybody knows your name.

Joining in the fun were three men dressed in black, each with a gun on their hip. Macungie Police Department Patrol Officers Kyle and Todd Bernhard and Dan Wiedemann seemed to be in on every conversation, serving coffee, bending down to talk with children, laughing with parents and embodying community policing at its best.

The community breakfast, sponsored by the Macungie Veteran’s Association, folded the national Coffee with a Cop law enforcement outreach effort program into a Sunday morning family-reunion-type event.

“We always look forward to these gatherings,” Officer Kyle Berhard said. “It’s the kind of get-together that’s a win-win for us and the community. We get to better know the folks we serve and protect and they can see us as a friend and neighbor.”