The Leonard Carmichael Society held its annual Kids' Day event this year on Saturday, bringing neighborhood kids to campus for a day of fun.
The theme this year, Jumbo's Circus, brought not only amusements planned by student groups, but a live circus performance.
"It's a really great theme, having Jumbo as a mascot," coordinator sophomore Shana Goldstein said. The troupe, the Waltham-based Cirque Passion, put on two half-hour shows in the Gantcher Center that included unicycle riders, juggling and two aerial acts.
Usually, performances at Kids' Day are smaller, such as a magic act, Goldstein said. Other circus-based activities included walking on stilts and balloon animals. Kids could also enjoy an inflatable moon bounce and a fun house.
Turnout was good on the sunny day, she said, though less than expected. About 450 kids had registered, she said, but 300 to 350 attended. The event took place during their school vacation.
The kids were entertained by approximately 175 student volunteers, who either supervised groups of kids as they circulated between events, or ran booths with different kid-friendly activities.
"They seemed to love it; they were especially impressed with the circus show," Goldstein said. "They [used] a couple kid volunteers in the show. They seemed to really enjoy it, we were very pleased."
For volunteers, the day represented a lot of hard work. "We've been preparing since last summer, picking the theme, reserving rooms," Goldstein said. After winter break the work really stepped up, she said.
The night before, she said, organizers began setting up at 8 p.m. and didn't finish getting things ready until 6 a.m.
Their day was simplified by renegade beautiful weather following several dreary, cold, rainy weeks. "We were thrilled with the weather," Goldstein said.
The volunteers had indoor locations scoped out for each of the activities in the event of bad weather, she said.
Freshman Natalie Polito spent the day helping out at the booth run by Tufts' archeology club, TUPAC.
"We put on sort of a mini dig for the kids, a baby pool filled with sand buried prizes," Polito said. "They could dig up 'artifacts,' which were actually prizes."
Another activity was making mini-pinch-pots, she said. "We had mini containers of Play-Doh, and you could make your own pinch pot, and they could decorate them. It was very hands-on."
"They were pretty receptive to our activities," she said. "They really seemed to like it; every kid likes to play in the sand."
She said the booth saw fairly high traffic all day.
Group leader freshman Luc?a Flores helped supervise six local kids, bringing them to events, activities and to lunch.
"I had a lot of fun with my group, they were all really good kids," she said. "They liked everything they had for them. There was plenty to do during the whole day, no one was bored."
As for the day's favorite events, she said, it turned up a "tie between the balloon animals and the chemistry show."
Some chemistry students cooked up a few impressive chemical reactions. "It made it seem like they were all mad scientists, and they liked that a lot," she said.
