In an age when reaching out to family is as simple as Facetiming loved ones on an iPhone, for Ben “Gabe” Esposito that is simply not enough. The 76-year-old recently explained family is everything, and for the past 50 years, he and his siblings have arranged an Esposito picnic at Merrill Park in Woodbridge Township.

He said it is not enough to just talk on the telephone, family needs to interact together in person. The children of the late Pasquale and Carmina Esposito, who coincidentally would have been married 100 years this September, held a golden anniversary picnic on May 26. “My mother said everything is about family,” Esposito said.