Turlock residents throughout the city took part in National Night Out, getting to know their neighbors at about 30 different venues.

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign — held the first Tuesday in August — that promotes police and community partnerships, and neighborhood camaraderie, with the aim of making neighborhoods safer and friendlier.

Charlie and Laurel Lambert were out with their daughters — 8-year-old Fiona and 5-year-old Rowan — at Columbia Park on Turlock’s west side.

“It’s always nice when we have fun things that are available for free,” said Charlie Rowan. “We did this, we went to (Turlock) Pride (June 7), and it’s fun anytime you can involve the community.

“Turlock’s a pretty safe place, but it’s nice to know that a lot of [people are going to be around and makes it an easier choice not to be a homebody,” he said.

For the kids, there were arts and crafts, games, bounce houses, exotic animals provided by Cruzin’ Critters, and free hot dogs and soda. Older kids tossed the football around while music blared from large speakers. All the while, people milled about getting to know one another.

“This is my first stop and I’m happy to see everybody out and having a good time,” said Jim Reape, an announced candidate for the 2026 mayoral race. “I’m looking forward to meeting some more Turlock folks, and I’m heading off to Donnelly Park next to see who’s over there.”

Additionally, Turlock Transit, the city’s Municipal Services Department, Turlock Public Library, Turlock Unified School District, Turlock Police Department, Walmart, and Doctors Medical Center (Modesto) were among the organizations with information booths on site.

“We’re getting a lot of interest, from a lot of people who didn’t know we had a library,” said Turlock librarian Karina Mendoza. “We’re just letting everybody know what we offer, all of our programs that we have for kids, and a lot of people seem really excited.”

National Night Out was established by Matt Peskin in the western suburbs of Philadelphia and has been held annually since 1984. The first National Night Out involved 2.5 million residents across 400 communities in 23 states. Today, millions take part each year in all 50 states.

“We saw an advertisement on Facebook for the events and the bounce house and stuff like that,” said Holly Powers, mother of four — Judah (13), Joshua (11), Jak (4), and Vibeka (2). “We stopped at Donnelly Park and there wasn’t a lot going on, so we headed over here.”