The Spotswood Police Department, in partnership with the Spotswood Drug and Alcohol Alliance, will hold the borough’s National Night Out: America’s Night Out Against Crime, honoring hometown hero Army Spc. Michael Gonzalez, 5-8 p.m. Aug. 3 on the grounds of the Spotswood Municipal Building, Summerhill Road. Rain location will be Spotswood High School.

Spc. Gonzalez, 20, lost his life on Aug. 28, 2008, while serving in Iraq.

Event highlights will include music; food and soda; games; vendors; driving-under-theinfluence awareness goggles; representatives from the U.S. Air Force and Army, Pros for Kids, local EMS services and Saint Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick; free giveaways; and child play areas with a water slide and a “bounce house.”

The community is invited to attend.

Guests are asked to bring one can of nonperishable food for donation to the local food bank in honor of Spc. Gonzalez.

National Night Out is designed to strengthen neighborhoods through police-community partnerships. The goal is to heighten crime-prevention and drug-prevention awareness, build support and participation in local anticrime programs and send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

For more information on the Spotswood event, email Sgt. Chris Bierman at cbierman@ spotswoodboro.com or call 732-416-1855. For more information on National Night Out, log on to www.nationalnightout.org.