JESSUP, Pa. — If you ask the volunteers of Jessup Hose Company #2, they will say Jessup is the place to be during the month of May, but especially Memorial Day Weekend. The 32nd annual carnival is back this week for the volunteer fire and ambulance company's biggest fundraiser of the year.
"Where do you come up with a million and a half dollars? You have to raise money somehow," said co-chairman Dominic Perini, Jessup Hose Company #2.
That is about how much volunteers say it will cost for the new equipment they are planning to buy this year.
The carnival started 32 years ago. Back then, it was one tent, and everything was borrowed.
"We took a grill; we took a refrigerator. We came down, and we had the event. They took the tent away before we could put the stuff back. We never looked back. It was all in the rearview mirror," Perini said.
And now it is more than just carnival rides, games, and food; the carnival all coincides with St. Ubaldo Day.
"I can't describe the race; it's like Christmas in May. We pay honor to one saint, St. Ubaldo. It's his day. You have to be part of it. You have to be here," said Scott Hall, president of the St. Ubaldo Society.
One of the most cherished traditions of Ubaldo weekend is the Running of the Saints with St. Ubaldo, St. George, and St. Anthony. This only happens in Jessup and in Gubbio, Italy.
"Once you get the feeling of it to participate, it's forever in your hearts. We're all family; it's a tradition that dates back to 1909," Hall said.
That is why the partnership between the St. Ubaldo Society and the Jessup Hose Company #2 works so well. Both groups are celebrating community and tradition all weekend long.
"It's just a feeling here, you can't describe it any other way. That's what you do it for. Some of us are old, we have aches and pains, and it's hard to get around, but when you see what you're doing it for and the reason why, it just makes it all worth it," Perini said.
The carnival runs through Monday; the Running of the Saints is on Saturday at 5 p.m.