Press Release
To: All Bloomington Media Outlets
From:
Date: July 18, 2005
IU BASKETBALL PLAYERS TEAM UP WITH CITIZEN CORPS
TO VOLUNTEER FOR NATIONAL NIGHT OUT
On Tuesday, August 2nd the Monroe County Citizen Corps and several former and current members of the IU men’s basketball team will join forces with West Side Crestmont residents, law enforcement agencies, community groups, businesses, and local officials to mark the “22nd Annual National Night Out (NNO) – which is sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW) – in partnership with Target and the U.S. Department of Justice.
National Night Out offers an extraordinary opportunity for local Citizen Corps volunteers to get out, meet, greet and discuss local safety and emergency preparedness issues. Citizen Corps is a program of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and this year, the DHS has encouraged local councils to increase their participation in the national event, according to Mark Brostoff, Chair, Monroe County Citizen Corps. Brostoff added, “…the Monroe County Citizen Corps is pleased to contribute volunteers, booth prizes, and emergency family preparedness packets to this event since creating safe and prepared communities is a mission of our “Are You Ready” campaign, to educate and empower families to prepare for and respond to emergencies.” It’s a real bonus to our community outreach efforts to have members of the IU basketball program volunteering their time, Brostoff stated.
Mark Johnson, former IU basketball player and SPEA/Citizen Corps intern has spearheaded the Citizen Corps activities and has enlisted several former and current players, including Sean Kline, Kyle Hornsby, Ryan Tapak, D.J. White and others, to participate this year. According to Johnson, “…it’s a great way for us to meet some young fans and to shoot around in a community environment. It’s also fun to volunteer and be active in strengthening families in our local community.” The players will shoot around with kids at the Crestmont basketball court from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Georgia Schaich, volunteer coordinator is part of the Citizen Corps because “…we are committed to finding creative ways to help prepare our community for all sorts of disasters, big and small, and engaging students to volunteer is just one way the Citizen Corps promotes safety awareness to neighborhoods. There will be exciting developments for the Monroe County Citizen Corps in the year ahead and volunteers may register online at www.bloomington.in.us/~mccc/ or email mccc@bloomington.in.us.