Night Out earns Barksdale annual award

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  • By Staff Report
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Barksdale was recently awarded a National Night Out annual award for the event held this past August.

More than 11,300 communities all over the country participated in the event, of which only 174 were selected for annual awards based on overall campaign quality, neighborhood participation, law enforcement involvement, media and promotional campaign.

This year's NNO was held on Aug. 3 and it marked the third annual event hosted by Air Force Global Strike Command's 2nd Security Forces Squadron partnered with the Landings at Barksdale aimed at drug prevention, police and community partnership and anti-crime education.

"We want to send a message to criminals letting them know that Barksdale is organized and fighting back," said Senior Airman Barry Richards, 2 SFS crime prevention.

The Landings at Barksdale targeted strengthening community ties among base housing residents.

"The Landings started this event for our base residents to show that we are a community just as if there were no gates surrounding us," stated Dreamer Dowden, Landings at Barksdale community manager.

The process to be awarded an NNO annual award doesn't end with the event itself, lots of work behind the scenes is needed to even be considered.

"We had to put a whole essay together and take photographs of the event and the displays we had set up," said Senior Airman Amber Jimenez, 2 SFS police services administrator. "We spent close to a month coordinating with off base law enforcement - we had so many man hours and dedication invested in the process and I believe it showed."

Of the 174 communities bestowed with this award only eight were military bases - Barksdale was the only Air Force base.

"Barksdale winning this award is pretty significant, because we landed in the top two percent of communities nationwide, which is really impressive," said Airman Jimenez. "Military bases fell into a separate category, so we went up against all Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Coast Guard installations."

Airmen Jimenez said security forces is looking forward to next year's event.

"We worked really hard on this event and we are really glad our 2 SFS could win this award for Barksdale," she said. "As long as the people who take over the event put the same level of dedication behind it I believe we would have a great success in the future and we could definitely bring home another award."