UWM faculty, staff and students are invited to a National Night Out event Aug. 3 hosted by the Mariners Neighborhood Association, which is located directly west of UWM’s Milwaukee campus, to join in community building activities from 6 to 8 p.m.

At 6 p.m., the night will begin at the Maryland Avenue bridge, where officers from Milwaukee and UWM police will join neighbors on a tour of UWM’s Milwaukee campus. From campus, there will be a mile-long walk — running from Oakland to Downer along Edgewood and Hartford — around the neighborhood that ends at the 3400 block of Frederick Avenue.

Community members can get to know each other better while watching Irish step dance and musical performances. A gyro buffet from Oakland Gyros and ice cream from the Milwaukee Police Department ice cream truck will be available.

“It is an easy way for me to help my community,” said Marcus Britton, UWM associate professor of sociology and community member. Britton helped organize the National Night Out event. “I’m a sociology professor, and I study issues having to do with neighborhoods and relationships among neighbors. This is a nice way to combine my own neighborhood of organizing with some of the stuff that I study.”

National Night Out aims to build community and foster good relations between police and local communities. The local event is meant to encourage stronger neighborhood relations with the UWM police, which have a strong presence in the area, Britton said. The event will also help the Mariners Neighborhood build “friendly, mutually-supportive relationships.

“The idea behind the National Night Out was to promote a little bit more of a sense of community in the neighborhood and maintain good relationships with the UWM police,” Britton said.