NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — North Royalton's National Night Out meant more Tuesday night than in previous years.
It's supposed to be a night of gratitude from the police department to the community and gives residents the opportunity to further build that partnership with those who protect them.
North Royalton Police Sergeant John Stolarski told me a dunk tank fundraiser was added for the first time this year. Initially, the idea was set up to help a former police department clerk, Angela Love who is currently battling health issues.
However, following the killing of building commissioner David Smerek last month, the police department said it wanted to raise funds for his family as well.
RELATED: North Royalton building commissioner killed at work
"We're going to split the donations 50/50 right down the middle to both families," Stolarski said. "There is a time to mourn, but there's also a time to celebrate life, and that's what this is today. Life's about moving on. We're all in this together any little way. I can't even imagine what's going on in their lives, but we are here to help in our small way and we are all here. It's a strong community and we will continue to be so and we will continue to support each other."
People stopping by the tank between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. could dunk the Police Chief. The hour following that, people could dunk a detective.
Three balls were sold for $5 or for an automatic dunk, it was $20.
Jeramie Ellsworth, an employee of Hoffman Tree Service that was there as part of the touch-a-truck portion of the event, donated $100 to the dunk tank fundraiser.
"It's all about the cops and the kids," he told me.
But then, I told him where his money would go: towards Love and Smerek's family.
"I had no idea," Ellsworth said. "Very cool. It's worth it."
Ellsworth said he was shocked and saddened when he heard about what happened to Smerek in July, telling me while he didn't know him personally, lots of his friends did. Not only that, but he said he grew in North Royalton, so the news hit close to home.
"I actually have a lot of friends who own businesses in here (the National Night Out set up). Permitting processes, like that's where you go, you know, it's either city hall or you're going to a service department. Those guys had really close connections to that guy, so it was very real, so real for a lot of us because that could really be any of us. Very sad because it's not only him, it's his whole family."
Not only did the police department raise funds for Smerek's family as part of Tuesday's event, but city council approved two ordinances this week that would approve benefits for his family.
RELATED: North Royalton approves benefits for family of building commissioner killed at work
