Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well. It is supposed to be a bit cooler next week, which would be really nice.

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Last Tuesday we celebrated National Night Out at Valley Home. What a great night it was for our community. Our Valley Home School also had a Back to School Night that night. The two events together provided a wonderful opportunity for people to come together and have a fantastic night at Valley Home. We are so grateful to everyone who came out and celebrated with us.

We were very fortunate to have Sheriff Lieutenant Pastor Brock Condit come all the way to Valley Home to spend the evening with us. Pastor Condit said a heartfelt prayer at dinner. We are so grateful to you, Pastor Condit. Thank you for coming to Valley Home. We really appreciate it. Thank you to our Stanislaus County Supervisor Buck Condit who does so much for Valley Home. Supervisor Buck, your presence made our evening very special. Thank you for all you do for us. Brock and Buck are brothers. We are glad they were both here for our Night Out festivities.

We are so thankful to everyone who brought the delicious food to share. What a great dinner. We really enjoyed the delicious grilled hot dogs and cold drinks at the park and thank you to Valley Home General Store for the ice that kept our drinks cold. Thank you to Amanda and Eric Beltrami and Julie Beth Lamb for grilling and serving the delicious hot dogs. We really thank everyone who helped with cleanup, especially Jessica Borrego who stayed late to help with cleanup.

A huge thank you to Kathy and Philip Shepherd for the beautiful flag; it was the perfect way to express our deepest respect. It was a wonderful sight to see it flying proudly high above our little park. Our picnic tables in the park were made so beautiful and inviting by Tammie Smith. Tammie picked fresh summer flowers from her garden and placed them on each table; so pretty. We extend a huge thank you to Dennis McCutcheon for always mowing our beloved Valley Home Park and keeping the park looking so beautiful. Also a special thank you to our Valley Home Park Chairman, Don Taro, for the beautiful patriotic flags our Valley Home children decorated the park with.

We all really enjoyed the amazing car show that Ashley Barreto organized; she did a great job. We are so thankful to everyone who brought their beautiful cars to the Valley Home National Night Out. Everyone loved the car show. A big thank you to Christina Barreto and The Lil Buckaroos Daycare for donating the amazing prizes.

Adults and kids alike were excited to see the giant grader that Stanislaus County Public Works brought to National Night Out. Big thanks to Zachary Ramsdell, Neil Tackett and James Spoonemore. You guys are so grateful. The grader was so cool; it was amazing.

Our night was made extra special by the visits from our California Highway Patrol, thanks to Officer Olsen and Officer Ford. It was so much fun having you here with us. Young and old alike were all so excited when this beautiful big red fire truck rolled into our park. We are so thankful for all of our firefighters… a very special thank you to Matt Criswell, Micheal Snow and Erik Arnold.

We were delighted to welcome our Stanislaus County legislators and dog handler Cano. What a great evening it was.

Adding to the excitement was a very special highlight in the sky: The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Air 101 helicopter flew over our Valley Home National Night Out several times. We are truly blessed to live in Valley Home and have such a great sheriff. Thank you, Sheriff Jeff Dirkse, and everyone at the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department.

God bless America.

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As always, you can reach me via email at [email protected] or by phone at 209-985-5233.

Until next time, “Have a nice journey everyone.”