Choose Granite Countertops in Carver, MA for Elegance and Durability

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Kids & Family

Edaville Family Theme Park located in Carver will be holding its Christmas Carnival this Saturday as it's last full park summer opening!

Mark Allen Wood, Patch Mayor

This Saturday starting at 4pm Edaville Family Theme Park located in Carver Massachusetts located off of Main Street will be holding it’s finally night of the summer season. By popular demand, we are extending Edaville's summer Christmas celebration with a twist! YOU will be able to choose your own unique adventure at Edaville! All tickets include access to shopping and dining, and a visit with Santa in his vacation clothes. Purchase the bronze ticket for the most flexibility. This ticket allows entrance to the park, where you can upgrade your ticket to enjoy a train ride, buy a wristband to enjoy unlimited amusement rides and the train, or purchase ride tickets for an a-la-cart experience on our 15 vintage amusement rides. Please note, the train does not take ride tickets. A separate ticket must be purchased to ride the train) A silver ticket adds a steam train ride to your visit. A gold ticket includes everything Edaville has to offer. 15 Vintage amusement rides, access to shopping and dining, steam train ride, and so much more! Ride tickets only available for in park purchase. Tickets start at $9.95.

Edaville Family Theme Park is a 250-acre theme park located in Carver, Massachusetts. The park was initially founded in 1947 as a cranberry bog railway, but it has since evolved into a full-fledged amusement park with a variety of rides, attractions, and events.

CranCentral is the main area ofthe park, and it features a variety of rides and attractions, including a carousel, a Ferris wheel, and a roller coaster.

Additional facts about Edaville Family Theme Park:

If you're looking for a fun and family-friendly day out, Edaville Family Theme Park is a great option. With its variety of rides, attractions, and events, there's something for everyone to enjoy.

Find out what's happening in Plymouthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To Purchase Your Tickets to this amazing Saturday Night Event visit: www.Edaville.com and remember tickets start at just $9.95.

CARVER (WBSM) — With lots of paint, elbow grease and creativity, Carver’s Edaville Family Theme Park is about to launch the next chapter of a beloved portion of the park.

The Alpine Village makes its debut when the park opens for the Festival of Lights season on November 9. It’s a complete rebrand – and in some ways, a rebuild – of what was formerly known as Thomas Land.

Edaville owner Jon Delli Priscoli told the Carver Board of Selectmen in January of this year that Thomas Land would not return, which set the stage for an all-new concept.

Brian Fanslau and Hannah Harriman, who run operations for Edaville, have spent quite some time prepping the Alpine Village, and now it will be ready to welcome back visitors for the first time before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of being associated with an outside property, Edaville has now been able to brand the Alpine Village in a way that makes it more, well, Edaville. The rides now have the Edaville or the Atwood Cranberries logo on them, connecting them to the park’s history and its founder, Ellis D. Atwood.

“We think the park today is more in line with what Ellis did when he was running it,” Harriman said.

It also features some vintage Edaville decorations, accessories and even train parts that were just waiting around for the right opportunity to be put on display again.

It's also Santa Claus's new home for taking photos with park visitors.

The Alpine Village features the same 10 rides you and your family loved under its previous name, but each with a new look and a new name.

They include: Cuckoo Caboose, Kinderbus, Alpine Autobahn, Alpine Railworks, Dutch Windmill, Mountain Fire Brigade, Tannenbaum Drop, Rocking on the Rhine, Matterhorn Mining Company and Alpine Air.

Combined with the other rides throughout the park, there are now a total of 28 rides to enjoy during your visit.

Harriman’s personal favorite is the redesigned party room, which is available with the park’s birthday party packages. The walls feature a connected mural that depicts Edaville’s original steam engines in loving detail.

A new feature for this year’s Festival of Lights will be an incredible model train display set up in the former gift shop attached to the museum building, something that was first done during this year's Christmas in July celebration. A local model railroad club has taken over the space and is creating an innovative and interactive display for railfans of all ages.

Another way Fanslau and Harriman are keeping Edaville “old school” this season is their plan to exclusively run steam trains all season. The two have worked hard with their crew to resurrect a great portion of Edaville’s original line, and run some of its original trains along it.

Edaville’s Festival of Lights runs from November 9 through December 31 (closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day) on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. You can see the complete schedule and purchase tickets on the Edaville website.

Once again, Edaville will be offering tiered packages so you can customize your experience. Admission starts at just $12.95 for the Bronze ticket, which gives you admission to the park, access to shopping and dining, and a visit with Santa. The Silver ticket ($29.95) includes all of that plus a steam train ride, and the Gold ticket ($42.95) adds unlimited amusement rides.

However, this year, Edaville will also give you the option of purchasing tickets to be able to ride each ride individually, much in the same way as a carnival or fair. You can also do the same for a steam train ride.

Edaville is also running two special packages this season. The first is the North Pole Limited package, with the theme of “Yes, There Really Is a Santa Claus!” The steam train will take you to the “North Pole” at the end of the line to meet Santa and see all of the lights, while you’re served hot chocolate and cookies. Santa will board the train at the North Pole and give each child a special gift.

There’s also the “Santa’s Express” Edaville VIP experience, which is completely new this year. Guests purchasing this package get to arrive before the park opens and board the train on a newly-constructed platform at the front of the park. You’ll then be served milk or juice and a cookie while Santa and Mrs. Claus visits each child and presents them with a gift. Your ride will then bring you inside the park to enjoy the rest of Edaville.

In speaking with Fanslau and Harriman about this season’s plans, one thing shines through: they are the right people to be leading Edaville into a new generation, because they are looking to try new things while always keeping the tradition of Ellis Atwood’s creation front and center.

Behind the Scenes at Edaville in Carver, Massachusetts

We combed through the attic and climbed through the storage area and the attic at Edaville, everyone's favorite holiday-themed amusement park in Carver, Massachusetts to find some of the vintage decorations from the visits of our youth that are still kept on the grounds as well as in our hearts.

Gallery Credit: Tim Weisberg

LOOK: Holiday gift crazes and fads of the past century

CARVER (WBSM) — With lots of paint, elbow grease and creativity, Carver’s Edaville Family Theme Park is about to launch the next chapter of a beloved portion of the park.

The Alpine Village makes its debut when the park opens for the Festival of Lights season on November 9. It’s a complete rebrand – and in some ways, a rebuild – of what was formerly known as Thomas Land.

Edaville owner Jon Delli Priscoli told the Carver Board of Selectmen in January of this year that Thomas Land would not return, which set the stage for an all-new concept.

Get our free mobile app

Brian Fanslau and Hannah Harriman, who run operations for Edaville, have spent quite some time prepping the Alpine Village, and now it will be ready to welcome back visitors for the first time before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of being associated with an outside property, Edaville has now been able to brand the Alpine Village in a way that makes it more, well, Edaville. The rides now have the Edaville or the Atwood Cranberries logo on them, connecting them to the park’s history and its founder, Ellis D. Atwood.

“We think the park today is more in line with what Ellis did when he was running it,” Harriman said.

It also features some vintage Edaville decorations, accessories and even train parts that were just waiting around for the right opportunity to be put on display again.

It's also Santa Claus's new home for taking photos with park visitors.

The Alpine Village features the same 10 rides you and your family loved under its previous name, but each with a new look and a new name.

They include: Cuckoo Caboose, Kinderbus, Alpine Autobahn, Alpine Railworks, Dutch Windmill, Mountain Fire Brigade, Tannenbaum Drop, Rocking on the Rhine, Matterhorn Mining Company and Alpine Air.

Combined with the other rides throughout the park, there are now a total of 28 rides to enjoy during your visit.

Harriman’s personal favorite is the redesigned party room, which is available with the park’s birthday party packages. The walls feature a connected mural that depicts Edaville’s original steam engines in loving detail.

A new feature for this year’s Festival of Lights will be an incredible model train display set up in the former gift shop attached to the museum building, something that was first done during this year's Christmas in July celebration. A local model railroad club has taken over the space and is creating an innovative and interactive display for railfans of all ages.

Another way Fanslau and Harriman are keeping Edaville “old school” this season is their plan to exclusively run steam trains all season. The two have worked hard with their crew to resurrect a great portion of Edaville’s original line, and run some of its original trains along it.

Edaville’s Festival of Lights runs from November 9 through December 31 (closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day) on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. You can see the complete schedule and purchase tickets on the Edaville website.

Once again, Edaville will be offering tiered packages so you can customize your experience. Admission starts at just $12.95 for the Bronze ticket, which gives you admission to the park, access to shopping and dining, and a visit with Santa. The Silver ticket ($29.95) includes all of that plus a steam train ride, and the Gold ticket ($42.95) adds unlimited amusement rides.

However, this year, Edaville will also give you the option of purchasing tickets to be able to ride each ride individually, much in the same way as a carnival or fair. You can also do the same for a steam train ride.

Edaville is also running two special packages this season. The first is the North Pole Limited package, with the theme of “Yes, There Really Is a Santa Claus!” The steam train will take you to the “North Pole” at the end of the line to meet Santa and see all of the lights, while you’re served hot chocolate and cookies. Santa will board the train at the North Pole and give each child a special gift.

There’s also the “Santa’s Express” Edaville VIP experience, which is completely new this year. Guests purchasing this package get to arrive before the park opens and board the train on a newly-constructed platform at the front of the park. You’ll then be served milk or juice and a cookie while Santa and Mrs. Claus visits each child and presents them with a gift. Your ride will then bring you inside the park to enjoy the rest of Edaville.

In speaking with Fanslau and Harriman about this season’s plans, one thing shines through: they are the right people to be leading Edaville into a new generation, because they are looking to try new things while always keeping the tradition of Ellis Atwood’s creation front and center.

“There’s a loon behind you.”

It was an odd thing to hear, standing in the Tarpaulin Avenue home and studio of carver Larry Bertrand. And yet, Bertrand’s warning was accurate. There were indeed loons — aquatic birds found in North America, Europe and Asia — perched throughout the room. There were also eagles, bluebirds, hawks, egrets, kingfishers, seagulls, ravens, ducks, swans, owls and sparrows.

Bertrand, 82, is a “master carver,” and it says so on his business card. He has whittled away the last four decades making exquisitely detailed models of the birds that have fascinated him his entire life.

“I think they’re unique,” he said. “The way birds seem to be able to communicate, the way that they move, their migration. There seems to be a mystery about birds that humans don’t understand yet.”

A typical day for Bertrand is waking up at 5 a.m., going to the gym, going to his job as a construction supervisor and spending at least an hour in his studio every evening.

From the very first time he carved, when he was a Boy Scout in Worcester, he has found it relaxing.

“Ever since then, I’ve had a knife in my hand,” he said. “It’s something you can do that’s comfortable. You can be creative. You can cut yourself.”

Bertrand carved his first bird in 1985. Since then, he has taken carving classes taught by “world masters,” has extensively studied bird anatomy and has entered his sculptures in global competitions.

“Want to see a cool little bird?” He said, pulling out another carving of a sparrow. “This is a snotty little guy… Look at the attitude on that face.”

One of his most prized carvings is one of his “big failures,” a botched carving of a duck. He admits it “looks like hell,” but it was “such a mess” that he felt obligated to keep it.

“Sometimes if you do mess it up,” he said, “you can use it to create something that could be of interest. I think it’s really cool.”

Bertrand spends so much time in his studio that he no longer notices the strong smell of wood.

“I don’t have any idea how much money I’ve spent on tools,” he said, “and I don’t want to figure that out.”

Before carving, Bertrand reads as much as he can about the bird he is going to portray. It doesn’t improve the quality of the artwork, he said, but it builds a relationship between himself and his subject, his muse.

“I like to get to know a bird before I start to carve it,” he said. “Know its habits, its habitat, its migration patterns.”

Every bird starts as a block of wood. From there, a living creature begins to take flight. Bertrand saws the outline of the bird, then outlines the feathers with a pencil and knife before using a wood burner to sear in the pattern.

“If you took a knife and ran it through a piece of wood,” he said, “and got that feeling, and tried to create something with it, you may understand. It’s kind of hard to describe.”

Mozart plays on the radio as Bertrand works. He is surrounded by photographs of family members and pets, and a vast collection of corks collected from bottles of wine. He likes the texture of them.

That same preoccupation with texture compels him to painstakingly etch every single feather — 32 strands per inch — on each carving.

He deliberately puts imperfections in the feathers to make them as lifelike as possible.

“You can spend hours doing this detail,” he said, “fooling around with it, but that’s why it takes so long to carve these babies.”

One sculpture of a crow took him over 600 hours — and that was before he stopped counting.

After the initial sculpture is complete, Bertrand paints them with oils or acrylics, capturing extremely subtle variations in the tone of their feathers.

“There’s layers of paint on these birds,” he said. “You have to mix your colors, you have to be pretty careful. There's lots of different details on these little guys.”

His carving of a raven is due for a coat of iridescent paint, which will give its feathers a glossy sheen. Bertrand wants it to look like the sun is glinting off of the raven’s soaring wings.

“Very, very, very interesting birds,” he said. “I think they’re really awesome little creatures.”

Bertrand spent four days researching ravens at a sanctuary for them in New York. He is amazed by how they communicate with other animals to track food sources, but they aren’t his favorite birds. He simply can’t pick a favorite.

“I think every bird has a lot of unique features,” he said.

Bertrand plans to carve for “whatever’s left” of his life. He now works in the studio alongside his 13-year-old grandson, who has taken up interest in two of his grandfather’s biggest passions — carving and sailing.

Once, when Bertrand was sailing to the Caribbean, a bird flew into his boat.

“That’s not a good omen for a sailor,” he said, “if the bird flies in and dies.”

The bird did not die. He took that as a good omen.

CARVER – With certification of the town’s free cash not yet completed due to turnover in the finance and town administrator’s offices, the Finance Committee and Capital Outlay Committee are at a standstill.

Municipalities typically have their free cash certified by the state Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services by the end of October.

Finance Director Sue Moquin said record keeping challenges have resulted in the delay of the submission of the necessary paperwork to the state for free cash certification.

Before the capital expenses can be approved, the town needs to know the exact certified free cash amount.

“We’re waiting to see what the free cash number is,” Moquin said.

The discussion about the reasons for the delay got heated Monday night, with the delay blamed in part on former town officials who haven’t worked for the town for some time.

Finance Committee Chairman Alan Germain and Finance Committee member Adam Holmes offered conflicting takes on the situation.

“We can sit here and argue about whose fault it is and what should have been done prior to and shoulda, woulda, coulda it to death, it doesn’t change the fact that this is exactly where we are,” he said. “How we got here doesn’t matter. We’re here.”

Holmes said he understands some things have been lost in the transition but said it’s irresponsible to suggest the town’s books have been mismanaged when Carver regularly receives clean audit reports from licensed auditors.

Germain countered by saying he wouldn’t use the word mismanaged but there were things that were overlooked.

He said Moquin has been going through mountains of paperwork since it was determined that there have been money left in some accounts that should have been closed because the purposes for which they were created have already been met.

The Finance Committee ultimately voted to approve the town’s proposed fiscal 2023 operating budget so that Fennessy could present it to the Select Board Thursday morning. A planned meeting of the Finance Committee and Select Board was postponed Tuesday night.

Capital projects totaling $2.4 million were also under review Monday night, but all the funding sources were not finalized without certification of approximately $2 million in free cash. The use of American Rescue Plan Act funding, the closing out of accounts and bonding are options.

“What I hear right now is we have an idea of where free cash is going, but here we are laboring over capital numbers and we don’t know where $2 million in capital money is going to be spent specifically?” Holmes asked.

Follow the Carver Reporter on Facebook and Kathryn Gallerani on Twitter @kgallreporter.