National Night Out is Aug. 4 on the square

National Night Out is once again returning to the Red Oak Community, and is celebrating a decade of connecting community with first responders .
The event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 4 at Fountain Square Park and participating businesses around the square. Red Oak Police Chief Justin Rhamy and community relations liaison Amber Jennings shared details regarding the upcoming event. Rhamy said he was pleased at how the event has continued to grow since it was started in 2016.
“We can never give you a definitive number count as far as how many we believe attended, but during the National Night Out event in 2025, we had enough food for 2,200 and by the end of the night, all that food was gone. An overall number count is hard to give, but just in the areas that I was at and where I could see completely across the park, it was a full house for sure. I’d estimate we had an attendance of 2,200 to 2,600 people that night,” Rhamy explained. “It also seems like every year we get some new participants that want to come up and partake in the vendor side of it.”
Jennings added it was great to see the event keep drawing the level of participation it receives year after year.
“For the several years I’ve done it, it makes me feel proud. I love how people just keep reaching out more and more. It’s nice that people are still wanting to come and join. I think they see all the social media posts how well-attended it is, so they want to be part of it,” commented Jennings.
Rhamy said it was a humbling experience to see how the event all comes together.
“We’ve done it for nine years now, soon to be doing our 10th event, and I’ll tell you in my time here, I didn’t ever anticipate it would be this big. I really expected all the subsequent events would have crowds that were something similar to what we had our very first year, which was around a 400-500 person attendance. It’s amazing to me that it’s just kept growing from there,” Rhamy stated. “It’s cool to see that all the support from the community members who come out, and all the support from the local businesses and local vendors who come out and participate and want to spend that night with the community. Members of the community also take the opportunity just to socialize as well.”
This year, there are fundraisers leading up to, and during the event. Tumblers are available for pre-order until July 31 with logos and the phrase “Proud Supporter of Montgomery County First Responders.” The tumblers are available in red or blue, and each cost $20. Payment can be made by cash at the Red Oak Police Department; by mailing a check payable to “Behind the Shields” to The Red Oak Police Department, 106 W. Coolbaugh St., Red Oak, or via Venmo at the following link: facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1372770661650497&set=a.195296016064640.
Another item that they’ll be selling as part of a fundraising effort is a challenge chip.
“We have police department specific challenge coins that are in the shape of a police badge. They will be for sale for a cost of $10. As with the cups, any funds raised from the challenge chips will be earmarked to help pay for items and events for the 2027 National Night Out.  
While it’s gotten a bit easier for her since she first took it over, Jennings said the pre-planning for the event takes place much earlier in the year.
“For this year’s National Night Out event, we started planning in mid-April of this year. Now that we’re 10 years into it, thankfully a lot of people already mark their calendars for the next year because it’s on the first Tuesday of every August. I send out an email or call them and most of my contacts already have it on their calendars and they tell me they will be there. Once someone has participated once, it gets easier. The hardest part is adding the new people, trying to find a spot for them, trying to make sure that have enough room, but it all works out,” Jennings said.
In addition to local vendors, area law enforcement agencies and emergency responders were well-represented.
 “We have pretty much every agency within in Montgomery County here, and last year, the Emerson Fire Department was here, as well as Villisca EMS. The Iowa State Patrol Viking Lake State Park DNR officials, and even Montgomery County Conservation had a presence that night in 2025,” Rhamy commented. “We have a great response as far as turnout from local agencies, and we plan to have all the Montgomery County agencies back again this year. We contact neighboring agencies as well, such as Cass County, and give them all an invite to send a person or persons here, which is beneficial especially in communities that don’t host their own NNO event.”
One of the core missions of National Night Out is establish a connection between law enforcement agencies, and the public, particularly youth. On that front, Rhamy said they continue to be successful.
“From the couple hours that we had for last year’s event, we had a large number of kids. I had a few people say they felt like there was a lot more kids there in 2025 than there were in previous years. Whether that’s true or not, we will never know, as we don’t take specific attendance, but still, getting that type of a social atmosphere where kids are comfortable is important. They’re coming up, they’re asking for stickers, they’re kind of interacting with us because they want a sticker from the officers. It builds that camaraderie between them and the officers and first responders who hand out stickers as well, and it builds that overall camaraderie with the kids and the general public overall,” Rhamy advised.
Rhamy also commented on some of the things he enjoys most of all about hosting the event year after year.
“I really enjoy the socializing that I do, and hearing people talk about how they look forward to this event every year. This is something that we, for two hours out of our night, always look forward to it. I also am pleased with the joy that it brings to those that come out and spend the evening with us. It’s not just kids, it’s the adults too. It’s quite an impact statement that we get from seeing all those individuals come out and spend the night with us,” Rhamy said.
One event that was new last year was the canine demonstration with K-9 officers Drew Askey and Connor Jansky, with assistance from former K-9 deputy and now chief deputy Rick Mitchell. Rhamy said the presentation proved quite popular, and will return, as well as another special guest.
“It drew quite a crowd.Deputy Askey was a great presenter who gave as much information as possible to let the public know what was going on throughout the course of the presentation,” commented Rhamy. “The public was shown some of the dog’s obedience training and saw the dogs perform a mock drug bust on a vehicle. We’re going to be having the demonstration in the same location, the open lot on the square, and we’ll also have the helicopter from Cedar Ridge Aviation on hand as well. The helicopter and the canine dogs were definitely the most popular highlights from last year. The new event this year that will be taking place at the empty lot is a foam party. They had it at the Montgomery County Fair a couple of weeks ago and it was a huge hit at the fair, so we’re going to be bringing it to NNO as well.”
While currently, business participation is slightly down from 2025, Jennings said there’s still plenty of time for participants to join.
“So last year we had, with all the first responders included about 80 businesses and organizations. This year, so far, we have had 65 confirmed. There’s still some that are kind of up in the air and they kind of wait until the last minute before they commit to participate, but I look for them to probably be there. We’ve added a couple new ones. First Interstate Bank is new this year, as an example,” said Jennings
Rhamy passed on a special message to those that assisted in helping bring the event to fruition, behind the scenes.
“The donors sure do help out with the night. We make everything that evening free, but in reality it’s not free. So we have a lot of great donors that donate to it. It’s impossible for me to name them all. We have people that put money towards balloon artists, and that donate for us to host events like the foam party. We have multiple organizations that prepare and donate food during the event. Fareway always helps us out and brings their Impact trailer. They’ve supported us since day one. There are countless businesses that donate money year after year to put towards the expenses for the event. We most certainly need to give them kudos. Also, kudos to all the participants on the citizen side who come down to see us,” stated Rhamy.
Jennings said if anyone hasn’t participated in National Night Out and wishes to do so on Aug 4, there’s still time.
“They can reach out now and just either call the office or shoot me an email. We usually try to keep the map pretty much the same unless something dramatic changes When we can keep the returning vendors in the same spot, it just keeps it easier. Also if someone is interested in doing it next year, it’s never too early to get on the list. Otherwise, I’ll reach out to people starting in April of next year,” advised Jennings. “To contact me, they simply need to give me a call at 623-6500 or email me at jennings@redoakpolice.com.”