It all sounds a bit much - us asking members of the community to step forward to help organise next year's Arbury Carnival. Why don't we do it?
Well, we have raised over £1,000 for the Carnival this year, via our whip round (thanks again to all contributors!), but the fact is we have very little time to do more. We are not as young as we once were, there are numerous family and health issues to contend with, and one of our Arbury Archivists has recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
The Carnival is a very important event. The Arbury Community Association was formed in the early 1960s, and gained the Nun's Way Field (site of the legendary Arbury Adventure Playground), the Arbury Town Park and the Arbury Community Centre simply by community effort.
It was this same community effort which started the Arbury Carnival, initially a one-off for the Silver Jubilee, in 1977.
The Carnival takes away barriers and brings the Arbury community - and others from across North Cambridge and well beyond - together to celebrate and have fun.
Sometimes, it seems community spirit drifts further and further away in the 21st Century. For all our fine feathered phrases, we slot ourselves into inappropriately named council wards, throw out historic names because they're only associated with 'bad' things (we sieve out all the good and believe 'rebranding' to a meaningless name will solve all problems) and can be rather 'sniffy' and 'apart'.
Arbury has had much to celebrate when it comes to community spirit over many decades. The next time you pop into the Nuns Way Pavilion, spare a thought for past Arbury residents, like Mrs Lark, who campaigned to get the field - and other facilities for Arbury - and please consider volunteering to keep our Carnival going.
And if we can help with further fund raising efforts, we'll do our very best.
We really hope to be back at Arbury Town Park next year to enjoy Arbury's yearly big day, which brings so much pleasure to so many, both young and old.
Do you like the Nuns Way field? Well, it wouldn't be there if early Arbury residents hadn't campaigned for it. Mrs Lark told her story in 'Arbury Is Where We Live!' (1981).
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