National Night Out – August 3
Make it a night to remember!
A casual potluck or happy hour is a great way to meet neighbors and reconnect after a long year of distancing and isolation. But if you want to make your 2021 National Night Out a night to remember, here are some recommendations from Luther Krueger, the event coordinator for the city of Minneapolis.
Here is a sampling of real activities people have included in their NNO events over the last 30 years:
Food and beverages
- S’mores!
- Potluck food
- Sundae bar
- Had everyone to bring a dish and a story
- Taco bar
- Order pizza and make it easy!
- Potluck with assigned food groups by last name
Art and entertainment
- Pet parade
- Art stand
- Sidewalk chalk
- Tie dye demonstration
- Temporary tattoos for kids
- Face-painting (of course!) for kiddos
Sports, contests and events
- ¡piñata!
- Dancing
- Water balloon volleyball
- Made a bicycle “obstacle course” with street-chalk paint
- Hula hoop game
- Bean bag toss
- Croquet on a side lawn
- Bike and scooter race
- Badminton
- Frisbee®
Attractions
- Giant bubbles
- Our block created a “Museum” for residents. Everyone could hang up a picture of themselves on a clothesline with their brief written story
- Neighbors bring their collections … of butterflies, campaign buttons, squeaky toys 🙂
- Youth DJ
- Giant slide
- Wading pool
Games and trivia
- Worst Joke contest (we all LOL’d!)
- Streetwide scrabble
- Get to know your neighbor game
- Block-wide scavenger hunt
- Family crest drawing contest
- Cupcake walk
- Minneapolis trivia contest
- Life-size Jenga game!
- “Guess how many pennies are in this bag”
- Bingo
Sharing: Skills, items and knowledge
- Book collection for “Little Library”
- Set up a skill-bartering contact list!
- Book swap
- White elephant gift exchange
- Worm composting workshop
- Garden produce exchange
- Bicycle maintenance workshop
- Toy swap/hand-me-downs & hoist ’em ups!
- Learned about Somalia from our newest neighbor
