Soaking in this summer’s first hydrant block party

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - People gathered at Sioux Park Wednesday to make a splash and cool down.

The Rapid City Parks and Recreation along with several other City Departments hosted the first of three Hydrant Block Parties for this summer.

Today’s event had an assortment of water activities for people of all ages. To correspond with its name, The Hydrant Block Party’s main attraction was fire department personnel turning on hoses attached to fire trucks to get everyone wet. Firefighters and policemen spoke about what events like this mean to them and the community.

“More often than not we’re seeing people on some pretty bad times, you know? So when we can come out and make people smile, have a good time, get all the kids together, get the community together, we’re gonna do that, you know?” Firefighter Brian Shearer said.

“If you didn’t have something like this where law enforcement or fire [department] get out into the community, all the community would see us as, is responding to calls, arresting the bad guys, taking them to jail. This brings trust and they get to know the police, they get to know the fire department. So next time they see us, wherever we’re at they say, ‘Hi’ and it just builds that relationship between both of us,” Officer Dean Scane of the RCPD Youth Outreach Team said.

According to Parks and Recreations’ Special Events Coordinator Lyndsey Myers, the block party had a record attendance. More Block parties like this one are scheduled throughout the rest of the summer. The next one is at College Park on July 10th from 1 to 3 p.m.

For more information and updates you can visit Rapid City Parks and Recreation’s Facebook page.

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