Crookston’s 16th Annual Nite 2 Unite will be Tuesday, August 6. Crookston Police Officer Don Rasicot says the night will kick off with bingo at the Golden Link Senior Center. “This is Crookston’s 16th Annual Nite 2 Unite celebration,” said Rasicot. “It’s Tuesday, August 6 in Central Park. We have our 6th Annual Walt Keller Memorial Bingo at starting at 3:00 p.m. to kick things off at the Golden Link Senior Center. All those proceeds to the Walt Keller Memorial Fund. It’s not just for seniors, but we do also provide transportation for any seniors that would like to attend that. And there are lots of prizes given away at that time.”
Events move to Central Park at 4:30 p.m., but Rasicot says the kids will probably want to get there early. “All the events start at Central Park at about 4:30 p.m.,” said Rasicot. “We like to get all the kids down there early so we have early-bird signup from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. where kids can win bicycles and all sorts of other great prizes. But basically, our event goes from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. with a wide variety of things that happen. We have food vendors down there that are second to none — any food you want and ice-cold beverages. We have lots of tables that represent our community and services to our community, including our soldiers, corrections, EMS, and all of our first responders. We have the support of the Grand Forks Police Department, UND Police Department, East Grand Forks. They send their K-9s, bomb squads. We’re doing demonstrations constantly with the K-9 and bomb squad.”
Also, back is the Kempler Exotic Zoo with a presentation from 5:10 to 6:10 p.m. on the main stage. There are also a variety of contests including the dunk tank said Rasicot. “We have our very popular returning events,” said Rasicot. “The watermelon eating contest, golf ball drop, and our dunk tank is full of celebrities this year. It starts with Miss Crookston, Thea Oman, as it does every year. From there we have some of our city council members and Superintendent Jeremy Olson. We have an unbelievable number of gifts to give away. All donations from our super generous community.”
Life Flight from Sanford Health is also scheduled to fly in so people can see their helicopter if they don’t have to make an emergency flight. Rasicot said planning for Nite 2 Unite begins in May. “We have a great team of committee members this year,” said Rasicot. “Some of them even take vacation time so we can meet during the day. We start planning in May, that’s how big this is, and it culminates in an awesome day on August 6. The smiles that we have from both adults and kids makes it all worth it to the police department. This is a special day for us as policemen because we get to show the community that we are the community. We all live and work in our community. We love for the kids to come up and give us hugs and be able to call us by our first names and know who we are. The chief is very big on public relations, and that’s what we’re all about here at the Crookston Police Department. Yes, we have a very professional department, but we also have one of those kinds of small homegrown police departments where we want to be engendered with the community.”
