The Fresh Air Fund’s Wilton Volunteer Committee Celebrated Summer

On Tuesday, March 24^th, 2015, local Wilton volunteer leaders held an information session at The Wilton Library for prospective families to learn more about The Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family Program. Current volunteer hosts shared their experiences hosting New York City children and answered questions.

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, close to 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. 

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 Lisa Braden-Harder at 203-241-1289 or visit The Fresh Air Fund online at www.freshair.org.

Photo credit: Ann O’Brien