West Leechburg will hold car parade Tuesday for National Night Out in honor of first responders

The covid-19 pandemic isn’t stopping West Leechburg from thanking its first responders.

But the borough will have to celebrate them a little differently this year.

For this year’s National Night Out, the West Leechburg Crime Watch Committee is holding a car parade instead of the usual community get-together. National Night Out promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie.

“We want to thank them,” committee Secretary Janine Rodriguez-Rogacki said of the first responders.

The parade will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4 at the West Leechburg Firemen’s Recreation Hall. It will be made up of regular and emergency vehicles driven by police officers, firefighters and committee members.

The car parade is replacing the committee’s annual National Night Out community event, which had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. The event typically includes food, live music and entertainment and tours of emergency vehicles. Last year the committee added a vendor show, something they had hoped to repeat this year.

The Crime Watch Committee is made up of eight to 10 borough residents with a shared goal of keeping the community safe.

Committee members plan to decorate their cars and hand out candy and trinkets to children as they and first responders make their way down borough streets.

“We’re hoping they lead the way with the fire truck,” Rodriguez-Rogacki said.

Phone messages left for the police and fire departments this week weren’t returned.

Because of the pandemic, the National Night Out campaign is recommending communities postpone their events until Oct. 6. But Rodriguez-Rogacki said the car parade will take place Tuesday, National Night Out’s originally scheduled night.

“We wanted to do something this night,” Rodriguez-Rogacki said. “In October, we usually just do something Halloween for the kids. We usually do hot dogs and pass out a treat bag for them at our borough building.”

Borough residents are being asked to decorate their porches and windows and to leave their porch lights on from 6 to 10 p.m. Leaving one’s porch lights on is synonymous with National Night Out.

“I’m proud of Crime Watch for taking a bad situation and turning it around to still honor our first responders and give the community something to look forward to,” Councilman Matt Grantz said.

In addition to promoting safety, the committee raises money for the borough’s fire and police departments. The committee’s Trash to Treasure sale, its largest fundraiser, also had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

Last year, between $200 to $300 was raised for the fire department and about $200 was raised for the police department.

“We don’t raise that much money per year, but we do like to give to the fire department, the kids in the community and the police department,” Rodriguez-Rogacki said.