The Town of North Hempstead hosted its annual National Night Out celebration on Tuesday in Manhasset, Old Westbury and Port Washington.

National Night Out is an annual community-building event to promote police and community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make neighborhoods a safer place to live.

The Manhasset third annual National Night Out was held at Whitney’s Pond from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The event featured music, singing, dancing, health care service providers, crime prevention information, educational resources, dancing, hot dogs and ice cream, arts and crafts, raffles, games, health screenings, giveaways, and more.

Some of the organizations present were the Great Neck Library, Planned Parenthood, Verizon and The Wild Dog Foundation.

Nassau County police officer Eddie Vilchez said it felt great to be out at the park with residents.

“This is a way where the community and the police department can come together and you can see another version of the police” instead of them out there giving tickets or arresting,” he said.

This is “where the kids can actually see that we’re actually part of the community as well,” Vilchez said. “And they can see that we’re pretty much like their adult friend where they can come to us in case of any danger. Now the one kids that fear is where they think that oh, police is bad we’re not all bad.

“We like to be like the fireman,” he said.