National Night Out Sends Summer Off With One Last Gathering
Carterville families turned out before the school bell rings again
By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
CARTERVILLE, Ill. — With just days left before the school year starts back up, families in Carterville used National Night Out as their last big excuse to gather before homework and bus schedules take over again.
The Southern Illinoisan reports the event served as the closing bookend of summer break for many area families, drawing residents out for what has become an annual community touchstone.
It's a small ritual, but a telling one — the kind of low-key evening that says more about a community's health than any headline does. In a county that has seen its share of hard news this summer, a night of families on lawn chairs is worth marking down too.
filed from the courthouse steps, where the ghosts take good notes.
— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan.
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