Some say there’s magic in the antique carousel on Centreville Island. You just get on and get swept away by the music of the organs that has been entertaining children for over a century. For a couple of minutes, you get lost in a whirl of colour on the back of an inanimate animal that feels alive.

For Al Cochrane, 77, the artist/carver who has restored and maintained the Centreville carousel since he was 29-years old, the magic was in realizing that the carousel is “the most unique piece of art that there is.”

“People had the incredible experience of riding on a piece of art work that’s been created by hand,” he said. “Think of this incredible amusement that is entertaining and a piece of history.”

Cochrane has spent more time with the carousel than, arguably, anyone else. A sign-maker by trade, he was hired by the Beasley family in 1980 to repaint some of horses.

After the summer season had ended, and he was alone with the carousel, he’d walk around the ride on the creaky wooden floors with the doors closed. “I imagined all the people in the factories carving these animals and painting them,” he said. “It was eerie to me, but rewarding.”

Since news of the impending sale of the 110-year-old carousel on Centre Island, Star readers have been lamenting the loss of the ride that has been a staple on the island for decades. They’ve sent (and keep sending) memories, photos, videos, hoping to share the joy the ride has given generations of residents and visitors.

It shocked Cochrane when people came up to him, excited to meet somebody associated with the ride. “I look back and realize what an incredible thing it was for someone who wasn’t trained to take on the task,” he said, “and how important it became for people.”

When Margaret Franklin was eight years old, her father took her to Centre Island and let her ride the carousel 13 times. “Little did he, or anyone else know what would eventually transpire,” wrote Franklin to the Star.

Franklin fell in love with carousels that day. Twenty-one years after her first experience, she bought an unlimited day pass and rode it again with her best friend for her birthday. They went on the ride 30 times that day, once for each year she had been alive. When Franklin got married, she embroidered carousel-style horses on the skirt of the dress her mom made. Today, she has her own website where she sells carousel-inspired quilts and ornaments.

Yuriy Polevoy, a corporate lender based in Toronto, was inspired by the reaction to set up a crowdfunding page in an attempt to keep the carousel. “People really love it, and I just wanted to help them,” said Polevoy.

Every year, Tracie Klaehn takes her three daughters to Centre Island and their love of horses always takes them to the carousel. “Carousels let you dream,” said Klaehn. Their visits inspired a children’s book she self-published this year.

In Klaehn’s story, Centreville Island After Dark, every night one of the animals can go on an adventure. The chestnut horse goes first, as all the other animals keep a watchful eye out for any humans.

Shirley Fowley, who did the illustrations, said she spent tons of time researching images of the Centreville carousel to make sure the likeness was authentic, and replicated the feeling of adventure she remembered.

The last illustration in the book is a nine-year-old boy riding the chestnut horse: “Without further thought, he grabbed the reins and was gone, imagining he was riding through the woods on a grand adventure.”

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That’s how Ann Josling’s son, Adam, felt every time he rode the carousel. Diagnosed with autism 20 years ago at the age of two, a visit to the ride was a reward for getting through every visit to the hospital. “We would start each May with opening day and end with closing day,” she wrote to the Star.

The carousel was Adam’s favourite ride; sometimes, he would walk around twice trying to decide which animal to sit on. He’d ride it ten to twenty times in a row, some days jumping off one animal to go to another.

“The look on his face was always priceless; the world felt happier to him,” wrote Josling, “and before we left on a long journey home he would kiss the animals goodbye.”

“Centre Island won’t be the same without the carousel, it has been a big part of our life,” said Josling. “It will be a huge loss to the Island and all the grownups wanting to take their grandchildren down memory lane.”

“I’m going to miss it a lot,” said Cochrane. He’s designing six horses right now—hand-carved wooden animals that will be installed in a new, modern carousel.