To the Editor:

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 the Albany area 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, over 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 re-invited 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.

“I would tell potential host families to extend their arms and hearts out just once, and allow the experience to change your life for the better,” 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, call Cindy Mangione at 785-6176 or go online to www.freshair.org.

Cindy Mangione
The Fresh Air Fund