National Night Out: When Business and Police Unite, neighborhoods thrive.

Police-community relationships often fluctuate like a rollercoaster, affected by events across the nation in ways most professions never experience. Yet in Walker, Michigan, a unique partnership between electrical contractor Feyen ZyIstra and the Walker Police Department is creating a stable foundation of trust and connection through their annual National Night Out block party.

When Feyen ZyIstra  moved into the former Fairview Elementary School building, they made a conscious decision to be good neighbors. This commitment, paired with recognition of tense community-police relations nationally, sparked the creation of what has become one of Walker's largest community events. Over a decade later, their August block party draws families from across the area for an evening of entertainment, giveaways, and meaningful interaction with local first responders.

Officer Tyler Glass explains that these casual encounters humanize police officers while giving residents comfortable opportunities to ask safety questions outside formal settings. Meanwhile, E.B. Sondheim from Fines-Islestra notes the profound generational impact—children who first attended as toddlers now return as teenagers, creating lasting community bonds. The event represents a modern approach to neighborhood safety at a time when traditional neighborhood watch groups have largely given way to social media connections.

Beyond the free hot dogs, bounce houses, and bike giveaways, the block party embodies a powerful message about community resilience. As Officer Glass shares practical neighborhood safety tips—from evening walks to security cameras to locking vehicles—he emphasizes that creating safer communities remains a shared responsibility built on relationships and trust.

Want to experience this community-building event firsthand? Join Feyen ZyIstra on August 5th from 6:00-8:30pm at their headquarters across from Meijer on Alpine Avenue. Bring your family, meet your local officers, and discover how businesses and public safety can unite to strengthen neighborhoods one connection at a time.

If you have comments about this podcast, or ideas for future episodes, please email us at PODCAST@WALKER.CITY

Transcript

Introducing National Night Out

Speaker 1 0:02

Well, the first Tuesday in August is known as National Night Out. That helps promote police-community interactions, positive relationships, and Fines-Islestra, which is a Walker-based business, hosts a huge block party for the community on that day. And here to speak more about the party as well as what residents can do in their own neighborhoods, we have EB Sondheim from Fines-Islestra and Officer Tyler Glass with the Walker Police Department. Appreciate you both being here today.

Speaker 2 0:29

Thanks so much for having us. Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 0:31

So, eby, we'll start with you For folks who may not know what Finds Islestra does, what is Finds Islestra and what really caused this passion for community interaction.

Speaker 2 0:42

Sure, you might not know exactly who FI and Zylstra is, but you've probably seen our vans and trucks around. We're the blue vans and trucks. You can also call us FZ, it's a little easier to say. We are a national electrical contractor and we're headquartered right here in the city of Walker. We also have branches in Traverse City, Kalamazoo and down south as well.

Speaker 1 1:03

All right, wonderful, and you really took on this National Night Out initiative and this party and it has grown for over a decade. So where did that come from?

Police-Community Relations and Benefits

Speaker 2 1:13

Sure. So when we moved into the neighborhood we took over the old Fairview Elementary School and we wanted to ensure that we were a great partner to the existing community. There is residential in the area and we wanted them to know that we were a great partner to the existing community. There is residential in the area and we wanted them to know that we were here to be good neighbors and here to stay. And that was the driving factor of initially getting involved in National Night Out. I would say it was also at a time when community and police relations were tense and we felt it was a good opportunity to be the hub of community, coming together for the good Local politicians, state politicians, police, fire businesses and neighbors.

Speaker 1 1:52

Yeah, and that is the purpose of that is creating, just you know, breaking down maybe barriers or walls and making it easier to access your police and your fire. And Tyler, how does you know Walker PD kind of come into play with this.

Speaker 3 2:06

So a big thing that we do well Fane's Alstro. They pretty much do everything for us setting up and they're they're a great partner with it because it takes a lot of a lot of stress and stuff off of us when we have other stuff we're doing, whether it's taking calls and other stuff going on in the city. So they're a great partner to have in this. But what the event does and what I think it's so great at doing is one it's a national program. So it's going on all around the world and, like EB said, law enforcement, community relationships it's like a roller coaster it's up, it's down, at times it's great and then if something happens across the country it sends shockwaves across the nation and communities everywhere. It's a very rare career field where that happens and it doesn't happen in most other careers.

Speaker 3 2:53

So this, I think, is just such a great way to help benefit and foster community police, fire relationships with everybody and it's just a general area where everybody can have such a sense of community, because having that sense of community is huge, with people and then them just being in one central location where they can come and try and ask us questions. You know how do I keep my neighborhood safer. This is an issue we see ongoing and sometimes it's easier for them to do that than it is to. They feel more comfortable doing that just out in a public place than maybe coming into the police department for certain people. And then it's also a way to see us out interacting with the public and not in our regular duties of taking calls and stuff like that. We're out interacting with kids and they're just seeing a different side of us, that human side of us, in these community events. So overall I feel like it's just such a great event to build that relationship and it's so great that a business like Fane's Astra in our city puts it on for us.

Creating Safer Neighborhoods Today

Speaker 2 3:53

It is awesome. I think there's really something to what you said about having fun together, right. You guys are having a lot of fun at the event too. The kids are having fun, the adults who brought the kids are having.

Speaker 3 4:04

Everyone is there enjoying a nice summer night out as community, and just seeing each other in that way helps going forward throughout the year, yeah absolutely, and that's and that's one of the one of the perks of doing this job is when you, when you get out in the community and somebody, somebody just comes up to you and ask you how you're doing Cause because so many times, from call to call to call, whatever it is, we can deal with tough things throughout the day that most people don't even think about that would happen. We're dealing with people and helping people in the worst day of their lives and it's just. It's such a refreshing event to see people that are there and coming up to you and just talking to you. They'll hey, I have this going on. We've been seeing this same vehicle driving through our neighborhood type thing and they're there and we can figure out ways to help them. Just briefly Maybe not the most official capacity, but just more of a laid back thing.

Speaker 3 4:53

And then some people probably have never seen some of us. I mean, we have a relatively large department. Some of these people have never even had interactions with us because they just haven't needed us right. So they're there and we're handing out stickers and candy and all this stuff to the kids and it's yeah, I mean overall it's just, it's such a cool event, it's fun and it happens all over the county and the country on August 5th.

Speaker 1 5:16

Wonderful and we'll get to the details in a few moments. And you know, gone are the days, really, of the traditional neighborhood watches and of the things that maybe encourage neighbors to look out for each other. So, in this day and age, what kind of replaces that and how can neighborhoods look to create their own safer, tight knit community if they don't have that traditional neighborhood watch?

Speaker 3 5:36

So it's true, neighborhood watch groups have kind of gone by the wayside and I think a big factor in that has been the social media aspect of things the wayside, and I think a big factor in that has been the social media aspect of things no longer do. I think people need to get together once a month or every other month, whatever it is, to say, hey, I've been noticing this going on. This has been the issue in the neighborhood. I think right now, pretty much every neighborhood just has a Facebook page and they just go on there and that's where where their their problems, concerns and everything are voiced in there. We do still have one neighborhood that still has a neighborhood watch and they still do a national night out as well, because traditionally that's what national night out was designed for the neighborhood watch groups to have block parties, stuff like that, and now I think it's gone more towards businesses now supporting it and doing that stuff along with the police department, fire department.

Speaker 3 6:20

When it comes to what people can do to protect their neighborhood, um, it's very simple stuff. Um, something like keeping their, your, your house well lit. Okay, typically, if somebody is going to try and do something, if they see that it's well lit, it'll kind of deter them. We see that it kind of deters them. Another one is security cameras. You can get a pretty simple, cheap ring blink security camera off Amazon that you can throw up that just alerts your phone at night if there's any motion or anything outside your house. Another one that you can do in your neighborhood is evening walks. Okay, like later evening walks kind of, when you know everybody's after dinner they're kind of shutting down their house. You and a friend, a friend, a neighbor, whatever go walk the neighborhoods. If you see somebody's garage door open, shoot them a text message if you have their phone number. If not, knock on the door. Shoot a message on facebook. Say, hey, just doing a walk through, notice your garage door is open. Yeah, um, is it supposed to be otherwise? It's just a friendly reminder. Hey, shut it, because a lot of criminals their crimes of opportunity so they'll drive through a neighborhood. They'll see a garage door. That's when they go inside your garage and take your stuff.

Speaker 3 7:30

We also see that with vehicle break-ins making sure your vehicle is locked up, because a lot of these vehicle break-ins we get it's because a car was left unlocked. They're not typically not saying they don't, they typically will not smash out your window. Sometimes they do, but that's what we see is. It's that crime of opportunity and they're looking for quick cash, stuff of value, so that they can get that. So purses, money, change, all that stuff. Try not to keep that in there, uh.

Fines-Islestra's Annual Block Party Details

Speaker 3 7:56

Another one is firearms, okay, uh, a firearm is a vehicle. A locked vehicle is not a safe, okay, um. So if you do, if you are a CPL holder, you do have a firearm. Make sure you're getting that out of your vehicle and bringing it in. And again, these Facebook groups If you had your vehicle gone through something like that, shoot a message out. Say hey, reminder, let's all lock your vehicles. Social media is great in that aspect where you can reach a lot of people in just a couple seconds because you're shooting that message out. If you're somebody that's passionate about it, maybe you can start monthly reminders like hey, let's keep our lights on on our house at night, let's make sure garage doors are shut, let's make sure our vehicles are locked. So there's numerous things you can do without an official neighborhood watch group Great. However, if you do have one established and it's well-organized and stuff, and you do have questions, want an officer to come out and speak with your neighborhood watch group. We're more than willing to come out and do that for you.

Speaker 1 8:55

Yeah, wonderful, and that's kind of what these block parties were to do traditionally years past. Neighbors knew each other. They went out, you know, and now we may tend to keep to ourselves a little bit more, but that's kind of how Finds Ouster comes in with their annual block party and tell us a little bit more about that and what folks can expect too, if this is the first time they may happen to be hearing about it.

Speaker 2 9:17

Sure, yeah Well, encourage everyone to come out. It's great for all ages. Again, it's on August 5th, from 6 to 8.30pm, right in our front lot, which is right across from the Meyer on Alpine, so join us there. We've got a lot of stage entertainment. We give away bikes and pools and prizes, so the police and the fire department are there running activities and interacting with community members balloon twisters, free hot dogs and ice cream and bounce houses. It's just a great time for all ages.

Speaker 1 9:49

Yeah, completely free events. And what have you seen over the 10 years or so that this has been going on? How do you feel kind of whenever you see everyone coming enjoying themselves, getting to interact with everybody? You see everyone coming enjoying themselves, getting to interact with everybody.

Evolution and Impact Over Years

Speaker 2 10:02

It's a big sense of pride to be able to build something up with such a great partner like the City of Walker and the Walker City Police. It's become so much bigger than when it started and it's been so rewarding to see some of the same kids that were three years old on their first visit to National Night Out are, or now in their teens, still coming back with their friends and family. Overall, just such a rewarding experience. To kind of have an overview, look at it over the years.

Speaker 1 10:31

Yes, and if you're passing down on Alpine you can definitely notice it. It has gotten bigger and it's just such a great thing for this community. We appreciate both of your partnerships and beyond for everything that you do to help keep our community connected, safer and just improving the quality of life here in walker. So, eb and tyler, thank you so much and we thank you for watching us as well okay.