Sammy Morris, of the New England Patriots, signs a football for Alex Kalogeropoulos, a 3rd grader at the Kennedy Elementary School in Somerville. Kids discuss their book reports with Tufts students. ~Photos by Ashley Taylor By Ashley Taylor Bang! Bang bang! Babang bang bang! At 3 p.m. on Sunday, a popping noise much like gunshots rang out from the tennis courts at the Tufts Gantcher Center, startling bystanders. Had a tennis match turned to violence? No, it was just the popping of hundreds of balloons as Tufts Hillel staff and volunteers began cleaning up after their 11th Annual Read by the River Carnival, which had begun at noon that day. Read by the River is a carnival for kids – complete with cotton candy – where all the activities relate to reading. Tufts Hillel, the university's Jewish student organization, founded the event and organizes it every year, with help from other organizations at Tufts and in the surrounding community. This is the second year that Hillel has held Read by the River at the Gantcher Family Sports and Convocation Center. They moved it from a smaller gym at Tufts to the larger facility when they expanded it to include kids from Somerville in addition to kids from Medford. According to Jared Glick, Chair of the carnival's planning board, an estimated 750 to 1,000 attendants and 200 volunteers gathered for the afternoon of reading fun. Gathered…indoors? Yes. Read by the River has never been outdoors, let alone by a river. Glick explained the origins of the name: "The first year, it was actually supposed to be held by the Charles, I believe, if not another river or body of water, and it actually rained, much like today, so they had a rain date." Glick pointed out that it often pours on the day of Read by the River, as has for the last three years, including this past Sunday.

Organizations from Tufts and the cities of
Somerville and Medford ran activity booths along the theme of "Reading
Around the World." The activities were loosely organized by continent
(though no one could explain why the Medford, Somerville, and Tufts
libraries were sent to Antarctica). Students made maracas, wrote their
names in the Mayan alphabet, wrote their names in Arabic, had their
names written in Hebrew on pasta beads, and enjoyed universal
activities like face painting, jumping rope and guessing the number of
Jelly Bellies in a jar. The Somerville and Medford Police and Fire
Departments also had booths where, along with reading, they promoted
citizenship and fire safety.

That's what students in Tufts
Hillel hope kids will take away from the Read by the River fair. Why
does the student Jewish organization put so much energy into a literacy
fair? Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Executive Director of Tufts Hillel,
answered, "The reason that we came up with this as a concept was
because in the Jewish tradition, literacy, reading, education, is such
an important value. The Jewish people are often called the people of
the book, and so this is a value that we feel is so important in
society…Hillel, like Tufts in general, is very committed to community
service and connections, and we thought it especially important to do
something broader on the importance of literacy and education in
society."