For as long as Liz Forks can remember, National Night Out in Ripon has been a community-wide event.

“Most cities will have block parties,” she said at Tuesday’s event at the Ripon Community Center. “We have it at a central location so that our citizens know that we care and appreciate them.”

The National Night Out event is designed to increase personal interaction among residents in neighborhoods and the community as a whole to make people more aware so that they can spot if something is amiss and alert police.

Donations by community members and business folks helped provided the free eats, refreshments and fun and games, said Forks, who is a Community Service Officer for the Ripon Police Department.

It was also an opportunity for parents to register their youngster with Ripon Police’s free Kid ID program.

“We enter their information (including photo ID and thumb print) into a centralized data base,” said RPD’s Gail Fry.

This was the 36th year of NNO in Ripon.

A Unity in Our Community helped kicked off the days leading up to this day.

NNO also featured A-MAZE-IN team racing event.

Free hotdogs along with bottled water, chips, sno-cones, popcorn and cotton candy were free to those attending thanks to the various donors and sponsors.

NNO, in addition, included also a variety of bounce houses along with a showcase of vehicles and various apparatuses belonging to local police and the Ripon Consolidated Fire District.