Fresh air program kids

Children, ages six through 12, participate in the host program and re-invited youth can return until age Since , Popp and husband Bill have hosted eight children through Fresh Air. These firsts include things that those who experience them every day take for granted—seeing the stars at night, feeling the grass tickle the toes and watching squirrels steal seed from the bird feeder.

Other unique events for Fresh Air kids include hearing quiet, seeing darkness and feeling bugs. A co-chair of the Etters Friendly Town, the name given to an area where Fresh Air Fund children are hosted, Liz and her family have welcomed eight children over the past 11 years. Children often learn to ride a bike or swim while visiting.

Many families take Fresh Air youngsters to Hershey Park, Lake Tobias, Harrisburg Senators games or other destinations, but simple pleasures often win out. These experiences create relationships between the host families, the children and their families, said Charleston. Families re-invite children at a rate of more than 65 percent, she said.

Many families have ongoing communication with their host child after the summer is over. Any time a host family and a Fresh Air child want to continue to visit each other, they are able to do so. Host families report that they enjoy sharing and rediscovering the beauty of their own communities and participating in an exchange of cultures and traditions.

If the timing of the local bus dates do not work for a host family, special transportation can be arranged but is generally the financial responsibility of the host family. The first step to becoming a host family is completing this link. After you complete this form, one of our local volunteers will follow up with you to share more information and learn more about your interest in the program.

Completing the form is a request to learn more- NOT a commitment to host. This volunteer will schedule an interview, where every family member and anyone else who will be spending a significant amount of time with the Fresh Air child must be present.

You will complete a detailed application and background check forms, and the volunteer will inspect your home and complete a safety checklist. Finally, the volunteer will check 3 references for your family with one being a professional who works with children.

Local businesses are often willing to donate services that will help host families plan fun activities while they are hosting. Some businesses or local organizations plan and host picnics or parties. Anyone interested in supporting can reach out to their local volunteer or call the NYC office for more information. Please note, there are numerous volunteer opportunities on local committees that do not involve hosting, so if you are interested in being involved but not sure hosting is right for your family, please do reach out!

Watch Video Here. New Hosts. Returning Hosts. You cannot have access to our record room. I already knew that in black community leaders had criticized the Fund for not serving African-American children. Over the course of the next seven years, I renewed my request. I was able to gain most of what I needed by reviewing records held at the Library of Congress, visiting dozens of archives sprinkled across the country, conducting more than fifty oral histories, and reading thousands of regional newspapers.

Yet I often wondered why Director Morgenthau blocked my research. It was already a matter of public record that the organization intensified their host vetting process after a series of sexual abuse lawsuits in the early s. And, it was not like I would be revealing a significant shift in their racial demographics.

Their publicity materials continued to feature white families hosting children of color. Neither had I asked to look at personnel files or other confidential records. I may never know all her reasons. She is no longer the director of the organization and, during a phone conference just before my book came out, the new director explained that she knew nothing of this decision.

I do, however, have a guess. But it is only a guess. And I must be clear that what I am about to write is nothing but speculation.

Nonetheless, my hypothesis is consistent with more than a decade of research. I think the Fresh Air Fund board and staff were frightened I would discover that the public story they have told about race relations does not match the historical record. And they had reason to be scared.

In my research, I found evidence of black and brown children facing down racial epithets from their hosts, encountering both physical and sexual abuse, experiencing the repeated trauma of displacement, feeling like enslaved Africans on display as they, tagged and trotted out, waited to be paired with their hosts. Rather than a narrative of sweet, innocent contact between brown and black children and their white hosts, a complex pattern of one-way, tightly controlled, age-capped, paternalistic hosting ventures emerged.

This was the story that the Fresh Air Fund — I think — tried to hide. And it appears they are continuing to try to hide it. I was planning to give several lectures in New York and thought it would benefit us both to hold such a dialogue. My publishers even sent advanced copies of the book to their staff.