Commack, NY - July 23, 2015 - 36 smiling New York City children boarded buses on July 18th, headed for Western Suffolk, to reunite with their host families at the bus arrival in Commack. This summer, close to 4,000 children will enjoy a summer outside of the city with volunteer host families in 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.
“I’m excited to go swimming and to watch the stars at night. I can’t see them at night in the city!” explains ten-year-old Tyrone about his Fresh Air experiences. Many volunteer families find their hosting experience so rewarding that over 65 percent of all children are reinvited to stay with the same 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, call Jacqueline Shapiro at 516-702-1203 or visit here.
Pictured: Chasity arrived in Commack on July 18th to spend a week with the Gerchonowitz family of Eastport, for the fifth consecutive summer through The Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family Program. / Photo by Yvonne Patterson-Quirk.