Bancroft Community celebrates with annual Carnival

What began many years ago as a fish fry for members of the Bancroft ward High Priest quorum is now one of the most anticipated events on the calendar, marking the beginning of peak summer—the Bancroft Community Carnival, formerly known as the Bancroft Barbeque, formerly known as the Fish Fry.  

Jim McCulloch explains his part in the history of the event.  “When we moved here in 2013, they used to have a High Priest group fish fry.  For a number of reasons, I had already been made a High Priest, and I was with all these old guys,” he laughs.  “We were doing this fish fry every year and it was great.  We had a couple guys who were really good fishermen, and every year we had a ton of fish.  Eventually, it got back to us that there were these guys in the Elders quorum who were always asking ‘how come we don’t get to go to the fish fry?’  and I said ‘because it’s for old people.’  Anyway, it kept going on like that until one year I said to the bishop, ‘why don’t we just open this up to everyone in the church?’  and he said okay.  Then somewhere with better vision than I had suggested that we just open it up to the whole community, and make it a Bancroft event, and that’s what it is now and that’s the right way to do it.”

“Nobody’s preaching here.  This is just connecting.  This is just talking to your neighbor.  This is what I love,” McCulloch says.  

Although the event itself is for the whole community, it still has to be organized, and that comes from the Activity committee of the Bancroft ward.  The committee is made of an amazing group of ladies—Jacki Neibaur, Gabi Christensen, Myrna Eddins, Cammy Johnson, and Charlene McCulloch—who helped plan and put everything together for the Carnival.   

“It’s not just us,” Committee member Stephanie Rindlisbaker says.  “We have a lot of community members who help with everything.  We all get together and plan it, and we ask other people to help with different things as we get going on it.  The bishop brought down his bounce house, for one.  One of the counselors is running cornhole, and people are helping out with everything else that’s going on.  The Soda Springs Library let us check out their movie screen.”

Rindlisbaker also wanted to extend a thank you on behalf of the committee to all the members of the community who helped out at the event, and to the city of Bancroft.  “They were really nice to let us use the park, and they got all the tables from town brought up and set up early.  They also got it mowed and cleaned and ready to go!”

In the true community spirit, dinner was a town wide effort, with the budget for the event going toward pulled pork from Lallatins and rolls from Geraldines, but the sides and dessert all coming from those who showed up.  By the end of the evening, there was plenty left over to take home for anyone who wanted.

That may partly be due to Jim and Charlene McCullouch’s cotton candy machine.

The couple brought their cotton candy machine, as well as a bountiful supply of popcorn, and it never stopped running once it had been started.  The two formerly ran a confection concession business (called “The Apricot Tree”), and were more than happy to add their skills to the group effort.  The cotton candy has been a hit over the years.

“The first year we did this,” Jim says, “one of these kids came up and asked ‘how much is this?’ for the cotton candy.  I told him that you don’t pay for it here, it’s all free.  So he had one, then he came back a while later and asked if he could have another one.  He kept coming back over and over until finally they were cleaning up and everything and he came over and he was literally jittery he’d had so much sugar.  So he asks ‘can I have another one?’ and I asked how many that made.  He said ‘twelve’ and just as I was handing it to him, here’s comes his mom in the background and she yells ‘Noooo!  Not another one!’ and I said ‘You’d better take off running!’”

Following the food, a full range of games and activities were underway out in the park.  While kids made giant bubbles and got their faces painted between bouncy house visits, games of volleyball, spike ball, football, and cornhole were underway all across the park.  The weather stayed just about perfect for the evening.

Jessica Thurman and Cherie Roberts were on hand to provide facepainting.  Though neither one had much specific experience with facepainting, you wouldn’t have guessed from their creations.  “She’s an actual artist,” Jessica laughed.  “My mom volunteered me!”  Cherie finished just then, and showed young Addie Yost her image on the phone, at which she was delighted. 

Her father, Bishop Lorrin Yost, made his way from group to group helping with the constant hum of activities underway.  One of those activities was setting up a portable screen checked out from the Soda Springs Library in order to show the film “Babe” when dusk fell.  After a small bit of trial and error, the screen was ready for action, and just waiting for the sun to make its exit.

In the meantime, the “candy canon” made its appearance to a large group of children chanting “Can-dy! Can-dy! Can-dy!” on the lawn.  The cannon is pretty much what you’d imagine it to be—a PVC tube fitted with a pressurized air hose to launch candy skyward, above the waiting kids who scrambled around for it.  More than one kid opted to watch the cannon itself, rather than the candy.

“He would just sit here and watch this all night,” one mom said, as he son stared on in fascination.

As the sun finally started to make its way down, the hum of the bouncy house and the occasional airy thunk of the air cannon joined the sounds of a pitched volleyball game on the field and cleanup under the pavilion.  The first checks of the projector got underway, and many people began to wander over to where the screen had been set up.

“We love it here,” Jim McCulloch said, starting to take down the concession machines.  “The people are just down to earth and the pace is a little slower, as you can imagine in a small town.” 

Small town maybe, but a big community.