MOLINE, Ill. — The Floreciente Neighborhood Association partnered with the Moline Police Department, for the organization's end-of-the-year celebration Tuesday night.
"It's something that we traditionally do at the end of the year after all the community meetings and after all the community projects of beautification, we like to celebrate," Floreciente co-chair Susana Aguilar said.
The party had free food, toys and raffle tickets for attendees. Moline police officers volunteered to help run the event.
"Moline Police Department has done a great job helping us with bringing in some toys as well as being hands-on: serving food and greeting the kids, having that small talk," Aguilar said.
The toys were provided by the police department and other Moline businesses.
"It's a collaboration between the Floreciente center board and other nonprofits within our stakeholder community. And then also we have the support of the Moline Police Department, which was great, we always love collaborating."
Moline Detective Salvador Victor said the collaboration is mutually beneficial.
"It's great to see the communities get together because it just shows that they can work together as a team," he explained. "And I think that's huge with anything that you do in life. It definitely helps out the police department just to know that, you know, people can get along. My favorite aspect is just to see the community see the police department in like a different light, just to show that hey, we are people as well. And we're just one big team that wants the best for our communities."
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