MOSES LAKE — Ten-year-old Emma Pierce is always trying to outdo her older brother. So when it was her turn to plunge Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones into a dunk tank during National Night Out in Moses Lake Tuesday evening she knew exactly what she had to do.

“My brother Evan told me that there was no way I could do it and that I throw like a girl,” Emma says. “But I was the one who hit the target and got the sheriff soaked, not him. So I am going to be bragging about it all night long and rubbing it in his face.”

It was a good thing that temperatures were muggy during the event, because kids like Emma were constantly connecting with their target and giving Jones and Moses Lake Police Department Chief Kevin Fuhr momentary relief from the heat. The dunk tank was one of the bigger draws for attendees at the MLPD’s ninth annual National Night Out event. There was also a variety of police and emergency services vehicles for people to check out, activities, informational booths, free food and live music by the band Hometown Hooligans.

National Night Out is a lot more than food, fun and games. The event allows the public to interact with law enforcement and firefighters on a personal level and learn about all they do in the community.

“I went to one of these when I was maybe 6 or 7 and even today I remember wanting to be just like the cops that I met,” 17-year-old Cooper McLaughlin remarked. “To me they were and still are heroes. It’s sad that they have been getting a bad rap recently, but I think National Night Out is a great way to build bridges that were burned.”

National Night Out is a nationwide event with over 36 million people in 16,000 communities participating each year.