As beads of perspiration collected on his forehead, Syracuse University Ambulance member Adam Wolvovsky prepared himself for what was to come.

In a moment, another child clamored onto a nearby stretcher, strapped himself into the seat and began yelling wild peals of delight.

‘Let’s go, Let’s go!’ said Jermel Robinson, a fourth grader from Hughes Middle School.

Unable to turn the youngster away, Wolvovsky and another SUA student lifted the stretcher and its faux victim inside their ambulance vehicle. Behind them, a long line of waiting children continued to grow in number.

‘It was tiring,’ said Wolvovsky, an undecided freshman in the College of Human Services and Health Professions, ‘but we couldn’t look them in the face and tell them we couldn’t do it anymore … eventually we started wheeling them around.’

The patient efforts of SUA and 53 other student groups culminated Friday afternoon during the 15th annual Comstock Kidfest, an event targeted at local elementary school students. Just one week after hosting Relay for Life, Manley Field House provided an arena for community involvement on a much different level – that is, through the eyes of a child.

‘We didn’t have this when I was a kid,’ said Jennifer Pingiczer, a sophomore public relations major, as she excitedly scanned the field. ‘I love little kids … in college I don’t get involved as much as I’d like to, but this is a cool way to do that.’

In just two short hours, more than 700 youngsters from 54 community-based organizations gathered for the highest attended Kidfest in SU history, according to senior public relations major Samantha Long. As vice president of the Syracuse University Volunteer Organization, the group that organizes Kidfest, Long noted that she was pleased with the overall goals and reception of the event.

‘We wanted to have a celebration for children; it’s important to come meet children from all over the world,’ Long said. ‘A lot of planning went into it, and no one could do that if they didn’t care about the community.’

As various student interest groups pooled their creative powers, they presented activities ranging anywhere from typical bead making and face painting to poker games, army drills and slime mixing sessions. The Literacy Corps station also doled out free books that were donated by First Book-Syracuse University.

For many students, this is the second or third time that they have participated in the Kidfest program due to the simple fact that they enjoy exposure to children.

‘They’re really cute and every year when they come here they’re cheerful,’ said Nam-hee Chung, a junior television, radio and film major. ‘It’s different from working with college students because they’re willing to try new things.’ Chung came to the event with Kappa Phi Lambda, what she described as the only Asian-interest sorority on campus.

Senior chemistry major Eva Baker also enjoyed witnessing young people display an uninhibited curiosity about the world around them. As master alchemist of the chemistry fraternity Alpha Chi Sigma, she was able to observe Kidfest participants make slime out of a ‘top secret’ concoction.

On separate occasions, Baker said, ‘We give students peppermint blocks and tell them to plug their nose, and they go ‘whoa’ (because they can’t taste anything). When you get older, though, you say, ‘oh, that’s just science working.”

More than curiosity, the young students proved to derive great excitement over very simple gifts.

‘I like this tattoo on my hand – it looks good and it tickles,’ said Tanika Graves, a third-grader at Seymour Elementary, as she waved a glittered heart in the air. Another child, a fifth-grader from Chestnut Hill Elementary, was provided with an outlet for her own form of artistic expression through a dance competition.

‘I like showing people what I know how to do, and my skills,’ said Ajee Bostic, who has been dancing since the age of five. When given the opportunity, Bostic shook her body in ways that could only be matched with a woman well beyond her years.

As children ran from station to station designing their own jewelry lines, jumping in and out of inflatable castles and singing karaoke, they created a buzz of enthusiasm in the typically serious field house environment. In several cases, interactions between participants and children became a reciprocal exchange of gratification.

The event is in many ways a cultural experience and expression of US culture, widening its appeal to other ethnicities and diversities. Joyce Sali, a Ph.D. student at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Philippines native, brought her 6-year-old daughter to Kidfest as a way to help her adjust to a foreign society.

Because they are international students, it helps to be exposed to U.S. culture and overcome shyness by interacting with Americans, Sali said.

‘I liked the first stand,’ said Alyssa, Sali’s timid young girl. ‘They had art and I like art,’ she said while pointing across the field.

This year, Long was overwhelmed by an amazing display of support from the SU community and the program’s growth during the last few years. Last year, the event included only 600 children and 26 community-based organizations. To prepare for such crowds, Long was forced to deal with several problems – such as a lack of funding from the Student Association and the arrival of non-invited student organizations. However, Long and other SUVO members proved themselves worthy of such a challenge.

‘I am greatly satisfied in seeing how much fun the kids had, and how it has grown over the years,’ Long said. ‘I think everyone had a blast; I really do.’

Published on April 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm