New York, NY - April 16, 2014 - Fresh Air volunteers need your help to create another fun-filled summer for children from New York City! 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.  Host families simply want to share their homes with city children and the pure joys of summertime outside of the city. Families find hosting so rewarding that more than 65 percent of all Fresh Air children are reinvited to visit the same host families year after year. First-time Fresh Air visitors are six to 12 years old and Fresh Air hosts range from young families to grandparents. All it takes is the willingness to welcome a New York City child to your community.

“The first thing our Fresh Air child did was run barefoot in the grass. It’s always the little things that seem to be so valuable,” says a Fresh Air host.

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 this summer, please contact Jacqueline Shapiro at 516-702-1203 or visit The Fresh Air Fund online at www.freshair.org.