Suffolk County, NY - April 15, 2015 - Mother’s Day is a special occasion to celebrate the women in our lives who take the time to care for us. Many women in Western Suffolk take on the role of Fresh Air mom, as they open their hearts to New York City children through The Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family Program. This Mother’s Day, consider sharing the pure joys of summer with a Fresh Air child.

Each summer, nearly 4,000 children visit volunteer host families in rural, suburban, and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. Families find hosting so rewarding that more than 65 percent of all Fresh Air children are reinvited to visit the same host families year after year. Fresh Air children are given the opportunity to experience a world outside of New York City full of meadows to run in, streams to fish in and lakes to swim in.

“When Maria visits, our family can do whatever we had planned to do normally. It’s the little things, like playing in our little blow up pool or running around in the yard, that really matter,” says a Fresh Air host mother.

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. To learn more about hosting a Fresh Air child this summer, please contact Pamela Desmond at 631-786-1915 or The Fresh Air Fund at www.freshair.org.