Angels' Night Campaign Seeks Volunteers

DETROIT (WWJ) - Patrolling neighborhoods, watching over a vacant house, keeping your porch light on -- these are a few of the important duties of an Angels' Night volunteer.

Tony Kinsey, Community Affairs Manager for the Detroit Recreation Department, will run a volunteer command center from the Northwest Activity Center in Detroit.

"We're trying to give people a place to go to register, to deploy out and patrol, at minimum turn their street light on, at maximum to patrol and maybe watch a vacant house on their block," Kinsey told WWJ Newsradio 950's Chrystal Knight.

The big volunteer campaign is in full swing, with Angels' Night just a couple of days away. Tens of thousands of people are expected to sign up to patrol their neighborhoods on foot, bicycle and behind the wheel.

Angel's Night is a Detroit tradition that was created in 1995 after the the story 300 Devil's Night fires the year before made the national news.  The volunteer campaign was created in response to the violence and arson that plagued the city for years on the night before Halloween – previously known as Devils' Night, when residents of Detroit were known to cause mischief and vandalism.

Kinsey talked to Knight about the important timing of this year's Angels' Night.

"I think it's very important that this year, especially people come out, we have the World Series -- we're on a championship kind of feeling in the city," Kinsey said. "So why don't we just make sure we reduce fires as much as possible?"

Angels' Night patrols start Tuesday.

If you're interested in volunteering, visit this link.