The Whitsitt family was still unpacking the boxes in their new home on Prospect Street last week when Kacie Whitsitt found a sign on their door inviting the family of four to a neighborhood block party.

“We’ve never met our neighbors really before,” Whitsitt said. “What we wanted moving here was community — and first thing, we get to try it out.”

On Tuesday, within minutes of the Knoxville family being at their very first block party, her son was running around at neighbor Marcie Young’s house, filling water guns and laughing with other children.

“That’s exactly why we do this,” Young said.

For 32 years, Marcie Young and her husband, James Young, have organized the Prospect Street Block Party for National Night Out — an annual community-building campaign to build relationships with the

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