Fresh Air Fund Still Looking for Host Families for August

If you didn't cancel your summer vacation plans (Sorry, Maine, hope to catch you next year!), consider inviting a Fresh Air Fund kid along for the ride. There's still time!

Read up on it here: http://freshair-press.com/#Host_a_Child

This is a fantastic program that allows kids from all over the City experience a different place for a week or two. If you cut back on charitable giving and want to earn back some Karma points, this will make up for all the pledge drives that didn't entice you this year.

Fresh Air Fund Fund-Raiser

It's a worthy cause (and timely, considering summer is now upon us!). Right now there is a matching donation gift going on ($10=$20, and so on). Even a minor donation goes a ways to helping a kid get a couple of weeks out of the City. And c'mon, don't we all need a week or two out of the City during the summer?

Check out the website for more information on how to give.

Host a Child this Summer

Do you go out of the City during the summer? Do you have a mansion in the Hamptons or a cabin in the Berkshires? Do you rent a house at the Cape or in the Catskills for a week or two? Do you rent a motel on the Jersey Shore?

Forget that last one, perhaps. But if you do leave the City for a summer getaway, consider opening your vacation home's door just a little wider to let a child enjoy your vacation with you. The Fresh Air Fund is looking for host families all up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Host families can request age and gender of a Fresh Air Fund child to match your own children. I've known several kids who went through the program, both the camps and the host families, and they RAVE about the experience. It is really something that stays with them and makes a huge impression on how they see the world. Check out more information here.

Fresh Air Fund Looking for Summer '09 Counselors

The Fresh Air Fund is great for young children, but it can also be an opportunity for college students and other older city dwellers to not only get out of the City for the summer, but to have a fantastic time and build a resume. See below for the information to apply for summer 2009.


You love working with children, and that's probably what we like most about you. Running across the ball field, washing off the glitter glue, or swimming in the lake - with your cabin group laughing around you - you'll be in your element.

Are you going to be the counselor the children learn to paint with? The one they play soccer with? The one they want to hang out with? Or perhaps the one they read a bed-time story with? Whatever your role becomes, you'll thrive on the challenge and commit yourself to the cause.

You've got to be 18 or over by June 20th to apply, and you'll usually have completed at least one year of college by the summer. Any previous work with children should always be included on your application.

The experience you're about to apply for will be like no other, and it's going to take patience, flexibility, creativity, and a whole lot of self-motivation. But the rewards will be great... overcoming challenges, meeting new friends, playing games in the sun, jumping into the cool lake, painting face masks, hitting a home run, telling stories around a camp fire...

...and then seeing that smile brighten a child's face.

We're looking for counselors and program staff for all five of our summer camps - but places fill fast, so get your application in today.

We are now accepting applications for the 2009 season.

Need an End of the Year Tax Deduction? Consider the Fresh Air Fund

What's the connection to Sunset Park, you ask? Well, we happen to have quite a few local kids who participate in the program. Some even include my students! Their reviews of the experience are uniformly positive. This is a fantastic program, and it deserves support. If you are looking for a donation opportunity, check out the information and the link below.

http://freshair.smnr.us

You can give a child the experience of a lifetime with your gift to The Fresh Air Fund!

Every year, The Fresh Air Fund gives thousands of inner-city children the priceless gift of fun – and opens the door to a lifetime of opportunities. Whether it’s a two-week trip to the country to visit a volunteer host family, or a fun-filled and educational stay at one of our camps, our programs make for unforgettable memories – and open a world of new friendships and fresh possibilities. We are a not-for-profit agency and depend on tax-deductible donations from people like you to keep our vital programs flourishing.

Your year-end gift will allow us to invite even more children to experience Fresh Air summers full of learning, fun and new friends. Thank you so much for your generous support.

The Fresh Air Fund is also looking for hosts for the summer:

Thanks to host families who open up their homes for a few weeks each summer, children growing up in New York City’s toughest neighborhoods have experienced the joys of Fresh Air vacations. More than 65% of all children are reinvited to stay with their host family, year after year. There is no such thing as a "typical" host family. If you have room in your home - and your heart - to host a child, you could be one too.

Fresh Air children are boys and girls, six to 18 years old, who reside in low-income communities in New York City and are eager to experience the simple pleasures of life outside the city.

Two Very Different Op-Eds in today's NYT

Both want action from New Yorkers. The first one bestows the right to anger upon New Yorkers. Since I'm so self-absorbed, I always think of New Yorkers as those who reside within the confines of New York City. However, my guess is that the editorial board meant all of us who reside in NYS. Either way, we should be angry! Misuse of sex, money, and influence is rampant in our State Government!

It sounds like we need to call the efficient ladies at Sunset Park's Si Se Puede Women's Cooperative to give Albany a good scrub down. The editorial suggests finding decent candidates and supporting them. Read it in their words here. Pretty idealistic for the NYT pages; I guess the good weather lately has softened up the editors.

The second editorial that asks for your action is less seemingly insurmountable, but also demands dedication, either from your wallet or your vacation. It's about the Fresh Air Fund, which helps low-income urban kids experience rural or just out-of-city life for a couple of weeks during the summer. I've known a couple of kids who went through the program, and they RAVE about it. All this posturing about how "cool" and "tough" NYC kids really are falls apart when they are faced with jumping into a freezing lake or camping without a car or bathroom in sight. Especially for the kids that can experience this many years in a row, it's a life-altering experience. Universally (at least from my minor sample), the kids still want to live in the City, but they learn that "the country" is not all about hayseeds and manure (although that can factor in). Here's the site directly to the Fresh Air Fund.