Village of Westmont
Date Issued: June 21, 2013
“This was one of the biggest squad car nights we’ve had in years,” says Larry McIntyre, Westmont Special Events Corporation President. “We estimate that we had over 100 total vehicles, but even more impressive, probably over a thousand residents in attendance. It was great to see so many people walking up and down Cass Avenue in downtown Westmont.”
Each year, Squad Car Night is typically the biggest Cruisin’ Nights event of the year. One of the big reasons for this success is the behind-the-scenes work of volunteer Dawn King. “Dawn has been an unbelievable resource for Westmont over the years,” says Police Chief Tom Mulhearn. “She’s been absolutely wonderful and we thank her for all she’s done for so many years.”
To honor King’s volunteerism, Police Chief Mulhearn and Fire Chief David Weiss created the first-ever Public Safety Volunteer Appreciation Award and made the presentation to King while more than 40 law enforcement personnel from throughout the area applauded her service and dedication. “Dawn has done so much for Westmont,” says Fire Chief David Weiss. “She started our CERTs program, has helped coordinated all of the Squad Car Nights, and has been extremely active with Citizens Police Academy and more.” This will be an annual award and in the future will be named in Dawn King’s honor.
Law enforcement personnel and their vehicles from throughout the Chicagoland area attended the event and visited with residents and guests to talk about their cars, equipment and safety. This event typically has brought guests from throughout the country, but this year, Squad Car Night had a special guest from overseas. Darien Police Deputy Chief John Cooper brought his brother-in-law Jon Rosene to the event. Jon is a police officer in New Zealand, which makes him the furthest guest to visit Squad Car Night ever.
Chief Mulhearn said, “ I want to thank all of the law enforcement representatives who visited us and helped make this event a success. A special thank you to all of our residents who came to visit us.”
“Our new layout for Cruisin’ Nights has received rave reviews,” says Bob Reid, WSEC Board Member and Cruisin’ Nights volunteer. “Both the car owners and visitors have been very positive about the event. We want to remind everyone to give patronage to the downtown businesses and restaurants during the event because one of our goals is to make sure our downtown is successful.” The new layout includes the closing of Cass Avenue from Burlington Avenue to Irving Street so that classic cars can park right on Cass in a car show type of environment.
Westmont Special Events has reported that the first three weeks of Cruisin’ Nights and the Street Fair has been the most successful start ever. In the first week, the event had over 60 cars and about 500 event guests, and in the next week there were over 85 cars and about 750 guests. For squad car night, the event had over 100 cars and over 1000 people attending the event.
The Westmont Street Fair including the Cruisin’ Nights and Fresh Market will continue on Thursday nights from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. through the end of August. For more information, contact Westmont Special Events at 630-829-9378 or visit their website at www.WestmontEvents.com. Also, you can friend the WSEC mascot Stanley Jamburger on Facebook.
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Contact: Larry McIntyre
Village of Westmont Media Relations Coordinator
630-417-0280, lmcintyre@westmont.il.gov
