Open Your Heart and Home to a Fresh Air Child

Join Westchester County’s current and prospective host families on April 3rd from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at the Mamaroneck Public Library, at 153 Library Lane (entrance through the Emelin Theater), to learn more about The Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family Program. Local host families will share their experiences hosting New York City children and the significance of opening your heart and home to a Fresh Air child. Light refreshments will be served.

“Hosting provides our Fresh Air child an opportunity to experience new things, and gives our own children a chance to meet a new friend and share amazing moments together," says Janine, a Fresh Air host.

Fresh Air summers are filled with children running barefoot through the grass, gazing at star-filled skies or swimming for the first time. Each summer, over 4,000 inner-city children visit suburban, rural and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada through The Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family Program.  Fresh Air children are boys and girls, from six to 18 years old, who live in New York City. Children on first-time visits are six to 12 years old and stay for one or two weeks. Children who are reinvited by host families may continue with The Fresh Air Fund through age 18 and can enjoy extended trips. Over 65 percent of all children are reinvited to stay with their host families, year after year.  Through the eyes of Fresh Air children, families often rediscover the beauty of their own communities.

The Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer experiences to more than 1.8 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. For more information about hosting a Fresh Air child this summer, please contact Martha Mintzer at 203-226-6627or visit The Fresh Air Fund online at www.freshair.org.