Give a kid the gift of fresh air

When I was really young, the area that I grew up in was semi-rural. Farmland was less than a mile away. As the neighborhood grew, so did suburbia and farmland turned into highway. By the time I was seven, the farm was gone, replaced by an exit ramp. The pond was asphalt.

But I was lucky. Every Sunday I got to travel a whole 14 miles to visit a real farm. An this place was really out in the country. Cows. Horses. Goats. A lake with bass, trout, and an occasional snake.

Tall hardwoods like Oaks, stand alone Maples, and pine trees as far a you could see. The smell of pine on an early fall afternoon is the smell of fresh air.

I saw a calf being born. Saw it try to stand. Same thing with a colt.

And, I milked cows too. Just once. Only for a sec.

I caught frogs. Green frogs. Leopard frogs. And one big 'ol bullfrog.

I drove a tractor before I drove a car.

I was a lucky kid because I got to experience things that most other kids could only dream of. Part suburban kid. Part Huck Finn.

That's why I'm so enamored with the fact that the company I'm working for, Abraham Harrison is helping the Fresh Air Fund offer inner city kids from New York City to experience the same type of things I was able to experience so long ago.

But there's a hitch. Right now there's 200 kids who are registered to be in the program who don't have selected host families quite yet. They're especially in need of families who would be willing to extend an invitation to a 9-12 year old. And they really need more families who want older children and boys.

These kids need a break. They need to see beyond their own relatively small worlds. Sometimes a world defined by anything but fresh air.

So, if you want to get involved, or learn more, please email Angie at angie@freshair.org. Or youcan call 1 - (800) 367-0003 and ask for her.

A note on the Fresh Air Fund. It's an independent, not-for-profit agency, that'ss provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877.

Nearly 10,000 New York City children take part in free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2007, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.