Neighborhoods wanting to register for this year’s Eden Prairie Night Out should send in their information by this Friday. This year’s event is set to take place the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 5, in neighborhood block parties around the city.

 Neighborhoods looking for a possible visit from Eden Prairie officials can register for the event by visiting www.edenprairie.org.

There’s an added bonus this year for adding contributions to EP’s food shelf PROP (People Reaching Out to Other People). According to the city Web site, the neighborhood that brings in the largest volume of PROP donations will receive an ice cream social hosted by Eden Prairie Police and Fire.

One noticeable change this year is that the event is being called Eden Prairie Night Out as opposed to National Night Out.

“We’ve never been a part of that organization but we’ve used that terminology,” noted City Manager Scott Neal.

The National Night Out name is officially affiliated with the National Association of Town Watch, a group that’s faced media scrutiny for the high salary of the group’s founder.

Eden Prairie is not alone in distancing itself from the National Night Out name. According to a recent article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Golden Valley, Minnetonka and the Dakota County sheriff’s department are running their own events this year. On the Minnetonka City Web site, the city is calling its Aug. 5 event Minnetonka Night for Neighbors.

 “We do our own thing every year anyway, so why don’t we just re-brand it as Eden Prairie Night Out?” said Neal.