Just as Old Santa Ynez Day came this year, so
will it again next year. Cars will line the streets. Booths will display their
treasured valuables and chances are Bosco Carricaburu will be entertaining
children on a stage at the Tortilla Toss in front of the Chevron on Sagunto
Street.
“There’s never a dull moment around Bosco,”
said Nancy Beauchamp, Bosco’s sister in-law. “He’s a ball of energy. He’s been
doing Santa Ynez Day forever and without him I don’t know how it would go
because he’s such a big part of it.”
As Chairman of Old Santa Ynez Day, Carricaburu
has managed the event for seven years and keeps volunteers involved in making
the event a success.
“Being the chair is just a name, there are
other people who work even harder than I do,” Carricaburu said. “The name
chairman is nothing, it’s the people who make the badges, who come down all
throughout the year and help out.”
Carricaburu is a Santa Ynez Native and with
the exception of going away for a job outside the city in the ’80s, he has
lived in the Valley for 47 years.
“Grandma and Grandpa came over from the
Pyrenees Mountains and settled down right across from Mattie’s Tavern in Los
Olivos in 1937,” he said.
He remembers what the Valley was like when he
was a kid.
“You rode your bikes, played tennis, there
were a lot of farms, you hunted and fished and you made your own fun, got
together and played football and baseball with your friends,” Carricaburu said.
“Back then you would just get on your bike and you’d get home, do your home
work and mom would ‘say be home before dark,’ and you’d be home at dark. She
just knew you were out there somewhere.”
After graduating from Santa Ynez High school,
Carricaburu attended Alan Hancock College and later returned to the Valley
where he met his wife Karen.
“I came back here and went to work, school was
over. I had to go to work,” he said.
“It was a lot different back then, it was
cheaper to live, you didn’t leave the Valley, very few people left. If you were
raised here, you stayed here until like ’75 or ’80.”
Carricaburu’s involvement in Old Santa Ynez
Day is more than an extra curricular activity for him. He volunteers his time
for a reason that’s much more personal.
Because his father died of a heart attack at
an early age, Carricaburu greatly values life and what he has to offer to the
Valley community.
“Part of who I am is because of my mom being a
single parent and my dad dying so young,” he said. “[It] is part of the reason
I do everything with the kids, because he didn’t get to do a lot of those
things and I’m making up for things I didn’t get from him. So I make sure it’s
all about the kids, because I missed him and I make sure these kids ain’t going
to miss me.”
“It made me make sure I did not miss a day,”
he added. “It didn’t kick in until
I was about 27 or 28-years-old and that has made me who I am and to make sure
every day counts.”
His charisma and dedication not only to Old
Santa Ynez Day, but to the Valley is apparent and has not gone unnoticed.
“His leadership is fantastic. The community
would be lost without him, per se,” said Ish Castillo, owner of Castle
Contracting and a sponsor of Old Santa Ynez Day, “because he’s very kid
oriented. He’s jolly. He’s helpful and funny and he’s just a good guy to be
around.”
“He’s a lively fellow,” Castillo said.
After the annual festivities end and the
streets are cleared of crowds and vendors, Carricaburu and the Elks start
donating money to various children charities.
Though the Elks have decided to not give away
scholarship money this year, it is spreading it’s donations around to more
children charities in the Valley.
“This year we decided to change it because to
give $3,000 to just two kids didn’t seem right anymore because $1,500 dollars
doesn’t even pay for books,” Carricaburu said.
“We’re going to pick and chose our spots to
help more kids.”
The first charity on the agenda is restoring
the bobcat at the Santa Ynez Gym, which was defaced. Then the Elks are asking
schools and different children clubs to make wish lists that they can help to
fulfill, Carricaburu said.
Whether it’s a bobcat that needs restoring or
kids who need little league equipment, one thing is clear- Carricaburu plans to
be back on the Tortilla Toss stage in 2008, entertaining kids.
“I’m happy and very lucky,” Carricaburu said. “It’s always been about having fun and raising money at the same time.”