by Larry Chowning
Twenty-six year Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation volunteer Karen Ambrose has been named grand marshal of the 62nd annual Urbanna Oyster Festival to be held on Friday and Saturday, November 1-2.
Ambrose started her volunteer stint with the festival in 1993 when then chairman of the festival Glenn Pond asked her to chair the festival portable toilets services committee — a vital part of the event when 60,000 people converge on Urbanna, Virginia.
She was chairman of the festival in 2001-02 and 2004-05. She has also chaired the entertainment committee, oyster shucking contest committee, community row committee and trash hauling and cleanup committee.
“Karen has worked diligently behind the scenes for years to make our festival successful,” said foundation chairman Joe Heyman. “She is in charge of entertainment for the entire festival. She books the bands, sees that they can get in and out of town, coordinates the location of stages and makes sure electricity is provided at each entertainment site.
“She is amazingly organized, stays within our budget and does what she does without much fanfare,” he said. “Community Row on Virginia Street has been her passion and on Friday of Oyster Festival, Karen is on Community Row at 5 a.m. helping vendors get set up.”
“She takes care of two very important aspects of our festival — portable toilets and cleanup on Saturday night,” said Heyman. “I constantly hear people praising the cleanup job in town. When people go to church Sunday morning after the festival the streets are clean, and Karen coordinates that.”
Ambrose lives in Laneview with her husband, Lloyd. Growing up, the couple’s parents owned summer cottages side-by-side on the Rappahannock River. She and her husband have been coming to Middlesex since they were teenagers. “I married the boy next door,” said Ambrose.
She graduated from Lee Davis High School in Mechanicsville in 1984 and later from Braxton Business School in Richmond. She started working at the Allen Group in Urbanna in July of 1993, the same year she started volunteering for the festival. She also is treasurer of the Urbanna Cat Project which she and others founded eight years ago.
“It has been a great pleasure volunteering for the Oyster Festival over the years,” she said. “I would like to thank the foundation for the grand marshal nomination. I am very honored.”
Ambrose will be honored at the annual festival banquet and will ride in the Fireman’s Parade on Friday night and the Oyster Festival Parade on Saturday.
