July 19, 2005

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Several former and current Indiana men's basketball players will volunteer for the 22nd annual National Night Out (NNO). The program, which is sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW) - in partnership with Target and the U.S. Department of Justice, will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

Former Hoosier Mark Johnson, now an intern at SPEA/Citizen Corps, has spearheaded the Citizen Corps activities and has enlisted several former and current players, including Sean Kline, Kyle Hornsby, Ryan Tapak, D.J. White and others, to participate this year.

"This is a great way for us to meet some young fans and to shoot around in a community environment," Johnson said. "It's also fun to volunteer and be active in strengthening families in our local community."

The players will shoot around with kids at the Crestmont basketball court from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

The National Night Out program offers an extraordinary opportunity for local Citizen Corps volunteers to get out, meet, greet and discuss local safety and emergency preparedness issues. Citizen Corps is a program of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and this year, the DHS has encouraged local councils to increase their participation in the national event, according to Mark Brostoff, Chair, Monroe County Citizen Corps.

"The Monroe County Citizen Corps is pleased to contribute volunteers, booth prizes, and emergency family preparedness packets to this event since creating safe and prepared communities is a mission of our "Are You Ready" campaign, to educate and empower families to prepare for and respond to emergencies," Brostoff stated. "It's a real bonus to our community outreach efforts to have members of the IU basketball program volunteering their time."

Those interested in volunteering at the Monroe County Citizen Corps may register online at www.bloomington.in.us/~mccc/ or email mccc@bloomington.in.us.