St. Ambrose Carnival will truly be missed

Recently it was announced that because of several reasons, a decision was made to stop a longstanding tradition here in Old Bridge: 2007 would be the year that the annual St. Ambrose Carnival would be no more.

Many will say that it was just a local school function, but if you ask any Old Bridge resident who attended this event, he or she would surely tell you that the carnival was much bigger than just a school fundraising event. In fact, more people actually attended this five-day carnival than any other event held in our town. If you combined the Old Bridge Summer Concert Series with Old Bridge Day and added the local Halloween and Salt Water Day celebrations to boot, you still wouldn't have as many people who attend the carnival. The June event was so big that it also attracted New Jersey's biggest radio station, New Jersey 101.5, to share in the celebration.

So what happened? Why would St. Ambrose be persuaded to stop this event? Why would the town itself not help a community tradition like this one to continue and grow?

We have been told that because of the size of the event, the town and our police force would no longer provide protection for such a function unless they were adequately paid to do so. Obviously, doing this would have taken a massive chunk of the school's profits, not a good thing when you are trying to raise money for the children and a school. Also, the cost of the vendors who supply the rides and attractions seemed to increase every year. And let's not forget that recently the lack of participation from the school's volunteers who actually ran the event seemed to be at an all-time low. The answer may also be in the fact that many of those who ran the event simply retired.

I, personally, wanted to take this time to thank these individuals for stepping up when the school needed them. Due to their efforts, they truly made a real difference, not just to the parish but to the community as a whole.

There were truly legitimate reasons why the event was canceled, but I wonder, was it actually a good thing for the town itself and for all its citizens? Many have told me that for more than a dozen years this one event actually kicked off the summer for them. It wasn't summer until you came to the carnival, they said. Others simply were happy to share the celebration with their families and to have the chance to catch up with old friends. Still others were glad to take their family to a mini-amusement park and forget their troubles, at least for a while.

In fact, in recent years the event had gotten so big that not only the parishioners of St. Ambrose and most Old Bridge residents attended, hundreds of families from the surrounding towns and counties would also stop by to bask in the magic of a summer evening celebration. As you can imagine, the crowds got pretty big. Unfortunately, the final straw came last year when a few youths made threats of violence and chaos, arrests were made, and, the rest, as they say, is history, and in my mind the sole reason why this event leaves us with just a whimper and a few good memories. I guess that in the end the actions of a few bad apples dictated the end for this event and the end of an era.

Perhaps we all might learn from this loss. They say you never really appreciate something good until it is gone. True, there were reasons why the carnival should have been canceled, but when you really think about it, many of them were simply obstacles to be overcome.

There are many more reasons why we should continue this tradition. All it might take is better communication and understanding between the people, the township and our community leaders so that all can plainly see the benefit and joy this carnival brings to the residents.

Perhaps in the future if both the town and the school combine their efforts, we all may once again look forward to the day the carnival came back to town and welcomed the community, as well as all of us, with open arms.

Pete Trabucco

Old Bridge