HILLSDALE—Families, students, and revelers generally turned out in droves for the 28th Annual Hillsdale Fire Department Carnival, enjoying rides, games, music, and classic midway food and treats.
Anticipation only grew in the days leading up to the carnival, July 6–10, as the stately Ferris wheel, and so much more that speaks to summer, rose above the west borough parking lot.
Weather, of course, was an issue, with torrential rain and a pounding hailstorm canceling Thursday’s fun.
But in photos and videos, the carnival lingers still as a complete success.
It was organized by its founder, 51-year veteran firefighter and borough Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Bill “Butch” Franklin, who told Pascack Press last week “It was great. I started it in 1993 when we were looking for a fundraiser for the fire department. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
And the carnival, like so much else, was cancelled in 2020.
Franklin said, “Saturday was a fantastic day. A lot of mothers come out with the baby carriages and it’s a good day for them.”
Of the inclement weather, which is not unheard of for the event, Franklin said it was quite a storm. Even so, nothing dampened the spirit of the week.
“People had to get out. They were cooped up for a whole year, they had to get out,” he said.
He didn’t have attendance numbers, and said of the department’s main fundraising event of the year, “People come and go, come and go; it’s hard [to track]. A good time was had by all.”
Asked if there was anyone he wanted to give a shout out to, he singled out his “wingman,” OEM Deputy Coordinator Jon Najarian. He also thanked the governing body and St. John’s Church, the latter for accommodating commuter parking during the event.
“Without them it would be tough to have a carnival,” he said.
He recalled a hailstorm here seven or eight years ago when crews had to take to plows to clear the marble-sized ice chunks downtown.
Asked if he had a favorite part of the carnival — it means so many things to so many people — he said, “I love it all. The whole thing. I wouldn’t be doing it this long if I didn’t enjoy it.”
Kristin Beuscher, our assistant editor and Pascack Historical Society first vice president, reported July 5 that the department held its first fair in 1902, “when proceeds helped pay for a hose reel and pump — which the men had to haul by hand to the fire scene — as well as a small shed to house the equipment. Annual fair proceeds also helped to build the first firehouse in 1906.”
In the early 20th century the fair took place on what was then vacant land at Magnolia Avenue and Cross Street.
