GROTON — Once more a number of area families have opened their hearts — and their doors — to less fortunate children giving them an opportunity to experience what life is like away from the concrete canyons of the big city.
The program, the Fresh Air Fund, which is under the local umbrella of the Friendly Towns organization encompassing the communities of Westford, Groton, Chelmsford, Dunstable, and Tyngsboro, finds local families willing to host underprivileged children from New York City for multi-week vacations in the New England countryside.
According to Debbie Carter, volunteer chairman for the Westford Friendly Towns area, for many years the hosting of Fresh Air children was concentrated in Westford, but recently, the program has managed to break out into the Nashoba Valley with 38 families participating in 2010.
This year, said Carter, a number of the participating families are located in Groton.
“We do feel like we live in a community that has so much to offer and we know full well not all families and not all children have the opportunities our children do,” said Flavell Road resident John Amaral.
Amaral and his wife Diane have been hosting 8-year-old Kashawna Hunter this summer.
“Our children can see first hand from someone Kashawna’s age what life is like in a place like Brooklyn which is a lot different from the kind of life we have in Groton,” Amaral said.
The Fresh Air Fund was begun in 1877 when the Rev. Willard
Parsons decided to begin a program giving inner-city children the chance to get out from overcrowded and claustrophobic neighborhoods and to provide them with a measure of relief from the summer heat. To do that, Parsons made arrangements with families in upstate New York to open their homes for city dwelling children giving them the opportunity to breathe country air for a few weeks during the summer.
So successful was the program that a total of 1.7 million New York City children have spent summer vacations in the country. In 2006 alone, nearly 10,000 children experienced the joys of summertime in Friendly Towns and at five Fund camps in upstate New York.
“We decided to become involved for a couple of reasons,” explained Amaral. “One, my wife has a brother in Jackson, New Hampshire who has hosted a child for 10 years, a child who is also from New York City. So we had the opportunity to learn about the Fresh Air organization through him. From what we could see from their family, it looked like it worked out great for them.”
He added, “Later, my wife had the opportunity to go to the Groton Public Library and heard Debbie Carter talk about the local chapter of the Fresh Air Fund. We feel very blessed about living in Groton. It’s a wonderful town with lots of great people in it. It’s a very welcoming community. After we heard about these kids and how they just didn’t have the opportunities other kids in our own town had, we thought it would be a good idea to open our home and give them the opportunity to see what life is like outside of the city.”
The Amarals have two children of their own, the youngest being 8-year-old Sadie who quickly took to visiting Kashawna.
“Sadie feels like she’s got a sister,” said Amaral. “They’ve connected from day one and have spent every minute together ever since. We’re all looking forward to having Kashawna back next year and the years after that.”
For a family with children, particularly children who are close in age to the city children, hosting a Fresh Air child does not mean keeping them occupied every minute of the day.
“Fortunately, we have a pool so the kids practically live in it,” laughed Amaral. “Kashawna has nothing like that down in New York. Other things we’ve done with her is go into Boston for a day, going to a water park, and to a family reunion where Kashawna met lots of Sadie’s cousins. Also, we’ve been to the Kimball Farm which has very generously hosted a get-together for all the host families. The kids had a great time there going on all the rides. For them, it was like going to Disney World. The object is give Kashawna a feel for the local community and she loves it.”
But hosting a Fresh Air child is not a one-way street. Host families receive as much as they give.
“I’d absolutely recommend doing it to any other family,” said Amaral. “The kids that take part in the Fresh Air Fund range in age from five all the way to teenagers, and based on the experience we’ve had with Kashawna, I know that other families would really enjoy hosting Fresh Air children of their own. We feel we’ve gotten as much out of the whole experience as Kashawna has.
“We do feel like we live in a community that has so much to offer and we know full well not all families and not all children have the opportunities our children do,” added Amaral. “Our children can see first hand from someone Kashawna’s age what life is like in a place like Brooklyn which is a lot different from the kind of life we have in Groton.”
To learn more about the program, contact Carter at 978-692-9673 or call toll free 800-367-0003. More can be found at www.freshair.org
<a href="http://www.nashobapublishing.com/groton_news/ci_15585045tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.nashobapublishing.com/groton_news/ci_15585045Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:49:41 GMT 00:00″>Opening heart and home to inner-city youth
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