For a few hours tomorrow, 900 students will shed their young adult years for the chance to be a kid again. Tomorrow's Kid's Day, as well as last Sunday's Read by the River, get students involved with kids in the community. And between these two community service events, sponsored by Hillel and the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) respectively, a little over 1,000 Jumbo volunteers will or did sacrifice part of their weekends to hang out with local kids.
Last Sunday, about 600 children from the Medford community came to campus and took part in Read by the River, an event which promoted reading and literacy. The kids traveled in small groups to 18 different activity stations, manned by about 250 volunteers.
Sophomore Jason Litwack, along with juniors Mia Sussman, Nathan Perlis, and Jason Garfield founded the two-year-old Read by the River program. Litwack said that the program gives Tufts Hillel students a chance to interact with the surrounding Medford community in a meaningful way.
"We wanted to promote literacy, to bring the name of Hillel and the name of Tufts into the Medford community," he said. "[We wanted] to show that Tufts is part of the community-at-large."
Before the actual Read by the River event, volunteers traveled to Medford schools to rev up kids for the event. The Medford community responded with enthusiasm to the program and Litwack said that most parents had only positive things to say about the event. "[The parents] love the program, love the fact that it promotes literacy for their kids," he said.
Read by the River also gives the Medford and Tufts communities a chance to interact, communicate with each other, and improve their working relationship. "Any time you open up lines of communication it improves relationships," said Medford mayor Michael J. McGlynn. "I was shocked by the overwhelming response of the community. The place was mobbed and the kids loved it. I think the Tufts students did a great job of furthering [the kids'] skills," he said.
Tomorrow's event, Kids Day, also gives Tufts students a chance to interact with children from the Medford and Somerville communities. Now in its 38th year, Kids' Day is LCS's oldest and largest tradition, and has attracted its largest number of volunteers in history.
"This is the most students we've had participate in Kids' Day, so we're thrilled," said sophomore Sarah Stroback, one of the program's coordinators. "We've had such an extraordinary response."
As with Read by the River, Kids' Day is a time for Tufts students to directly interact and communicate with both Medford and Somerville children and parents. "Kids' Day is one of the main programs that's part of LCS that has a direct effect on the community," Stroback said. "It's a great way for the University to interact with the community."
This year's Kid's Day theme is "Tufts in the Tropics," and the program's coordinators hope to transform the Tufts campus into a tropical paradise, at least for a day. "We have volunteers coming at four in the morning to decorate," Stroback said of students' dedication.
Since so many Tufts students have volunteered as group leaders this year, Elder said that leaders will work virtually one-on-one with kids. In addition to providing this kind of exclusive attention to the children attending the event, student volunteers will also lead groups of Spanish-speaking children and special-needs children.
Both Kids' Day coordinators and volunteers are excited about Saturday's program. "When I did [Kids' Day] last year I had a lot of fun and so did the kids. I think everyone just really enjoyed themselves," sophomore Maryann Kuruvilla said.
Elder echoed her excitement. "[Kids' Day] is a wonderful way to engage Tufts students with children of the community," she said. "It'll be a beautiful day in the Tropics."
