 Brainerd residents got a chance to meet the local law enforcement, meet their neighbors and enjoy some free food. What could be better than that? Our Anthony Scott has the details. I think it's what neighborhood living is all about. Great music and the smell of pulled pork filled the air in Gregory Park tonight as part of Brainerd's 16th annual block party. Every year we get more and more people to come and the work gets out and it's just an awesome way to meet neighbors. The block party is hosted by the Brainerd Northside Neighborhood Association, a group that is important to the community. I think that the neighborhood organizations are really important to all the whole city because you get to communicate and get that information from what's important to neighbors and we can reach out and talk to the people that represent us. Along with the food and music, local law enforcement was present to celebrate crime prevention in the area. You get a lot of positive feedback, but when you're here and you're mingling and speaking with many members, you hear some things you may not hear typically when you're on patrol. So it's nice to get involved in these events and you need to pick up and it's something you can follow up on later and stuff. Community members were also able to get an inside look into the fire truck that helps protect their community every day. The event is especially important to new families that just moved to Brainerd. So we specifically tried to invite all the new neighbors to this party because it's a great chance to get to know everybody and see the heritage of our community and make them feel welcome and part of Brainerd. We are used to being in a community where you know everybody at everything and now we're in a new community. So we're kind of getting a feel of it. In this day and age, it can be easy to lose that sense of community which makes these events more important than ever. So many people work and have such busy schedules that you could live for years and not even live across the street. The block party was a huge success as people connected with old friends and made new ones. The fact that so many people came to the block party says a lot about Brainerd as a community. Reporting from Brainerd, Anthony Scott, Lakeland News. The Brainerd block party will continue to grow as the community does and will be back next year. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.