Long Island, NY - April 28, 2016 - 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 Suffolk County take on the role of Fresh Air mom, as they open their hearts to New York City children through The Fresh Air Fund’s Friendly Towns 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 along the East Coast from North Carolina to Maine and Southern Canada. Host families simply want to share their homes with city children and the pure joys of summertime outside of the city. First-time Fresh Air visitors are seven to 12-years-old, and Fresh Air hosts range from young families to grandparents. All it takes is the willingness to welcome a New York City child to your community.

“Hosting a Fresh Air child has a great impact on your own family. The gift is really to us, not to just our Fresh Air child, Carlos. It’s an opportunity for our children to learn, and it opens their eyes to things may not have known. It also gives my children and Carlos a sense of pride,” says Jennifer, a Fresh Air host mother.

Fresh Air volunteers need your help to create another fun-filled summer for children from New York City!  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 Yvonne Patterson-Quirk at 631-495-4139 or The Fresh Air Fund at www.freshair.org.