Building Community with National Night Out

Peekskill and Cortlandt join 16,000 communities nationwide

Children were delighted by a magician who wandered around Pugsley Park entertaining.

By Regina Clarkin, [email protected]

August 7, 2025

The first Tuesday in August is known as National Night Out, an initiative designed to improve crime and drug prevention awareness, generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime efforts; strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships. Families come together to enjoy food, music, meet businesses from the community and police officers.

That’s exactly what happened on Tuesday, August 5, at Pugsley Park in Peekskill and Wednesday, August 6, at Cortlandt’s Waterfront Park. In Peekskill the event is organized by the Peekskill Police Department, in coordination with the Peekskill Youth Bureau, the Community Hub of the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Fire Department. Some 16,000 communities celebrate the event nationally.

Families in Cortlandt celebrated Ice Cream with a Cop at the waterfront park in Verplanck, hosted by the town and the Westchester County Police. Kids played ball with officers and the crowd was treated to the landing of the county police helicopter.

Pugsley Park located between Main and Howard Streets was turned into a community block party. (Sheyla Cortorreal)
Various community groups including the sorority Zeta Phi Beta had booths. (Sheyla Cortorreal)
The giant movie screen in Pugsley was dark this night. (Sheyla Cortorreal)
Members of Peekskill’s Community Hub’s nutrition division grilled hot dogs for guests and fire department members hosted the sno cone distribution. (Sheyla Cortorreal)
Peekskill Racket Association offered Pee Wee tennis. (Regina Clarkin)
Budding tennis players experienced the thrill of connecting with the ball. (Regina Clarkin)
In Verplanck, County police officers played ball. (Sheyla Cortorreal)
The Westchester County Police hosted the event on Wednesday night. (Sheyla Cortorreal)
Cortlandt Supervisor Dr. Rich Becker, at left in blue shirt, with some of the County officers. (Sheyla Cortorreal)
The county chopper lands. (Sheyla Cortorreal)
A group shot in front of the county helicopter. (Sheyla Cortorreal)

About the Contributor

Regina Clarkin, Publisher

When the Peekskill Herald weekly newspaper ceased publishing in August 2000 it was the first time in the history of the city that there wasn’t a local newspaper. The award-winning weekly was often referred to as the ‘glue’ of the community. Founded on January 9, 1986 by Regina Clarkin, Kathy Daley and Rich Zahradnik with a $7,000 credit card line, the paper filled the void created when the daily Evening Star was sold to Gannett and moved out of town. Founding publisher Regina Clarkin continued to live in the Peekskill Cortlandt area and turned her attention to other life endeavors. Through the ensuing 19 years, Clarkin was frequently stopped in town and asked when she would start up the Herald again. In January 2019, Clarkin decided it was less labor intensive to deliver a weekly blog than a print newspaper so she began posting one story a week about life in Peekskill. After a successful crowd funding campaign in 2020, the Herald was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in July of 2021. Peekskill Herald is a digital relative of the former print edition, featuring many of the favorite aspects of the beloved Peekskill Herald such as old pictures, personality profiles and well written stories about newsworthy events. Regina Clarkin is the editor and publisher of the site.