KANNAPOLIS- The City of Kannapolis has been recognized for its citywide National Night Out Event by the National Association of Town Watch.

The event was named one of the Top 21 across the U.S. for cities with a population of 50,000-100,000 because of its continuous success in bringing together people in the City to foster positive friendships.

 The City hosted the National Night Out event with live marching band music, community resource fair with 25 non-profits represented, distributed 400 book bags full of school supplies for children, and gave away 1,000 hotdogs.

This year the event featured the introduction of the Community Bridge Group. They are a group of area ministers who have launched the Community Bridge Project. Their purpose is to build positive and healthy relationships among diverse groups within the Kannapolis community. The group is working to accomplish their goals through intentional communication, purposeful dialogue on important issues and solving conflicts.

The group centers their work around public education and community dialogue about topics of particular interest to people of Kannapolis and those that may have raised levels of racial tension in other areas of the country. Topics include educating the public about affordable housing and childcare, police procedures regarding traffic stops and response to incidents, job training, entrepreneurship and much more.

“The National Night Out event is about collaborating with residents to help keep our community safe and one way for us to do that is to get to know each other. Each year we see people come to the event, share a hotdog meal, and get to know each other and our police officers. People come out and stay for the entire event which is a pleasure to see,” commented Kannapolis Community Development Program Administrator Sherry Gordon.

“Each year our event grows as we work to foster positive relationships between our police officers and the community. It is one of our favorite events of the year. We meet so many new people who have moved here, families with children and business owners. It is a great way for us to form relationships with our residents and for residents to meet our officers,” said Kannapolis Police Chief Terry Spry.