New York City Youngsters Welcomed By Fresh Air Families
New York City Youngsters Welcomed By Fresh Air Families
By Dottie Evans
Balloons and colorful, homemade welcome signs brightened the parking lot behind Edmond Town Hall Tuesday afternoon as the big coach bus rolled in bearing 15 youngsters who would be staying with families from Newtown, Danbury, Redding, and Litchfield County for the next two weeks.
The children, ranging in age between 8 and 12, had been selected to participate in the Fresh Air Fund program, an independent, nonprofit agency that provides free summer vacations to more than 10,000 New York City children in more than 300 towns.
The program has been in existence since 1877 and over the past 126 years, it has served more than 1.7 million children.
The Fresh Air Fund has been bringing city youngsters together with Newtown families for many years, and Tuesday afternoon, several of the children who stepped off the bus were rejoining their families for a second year or more.
Crystal Washington, 8, will be spending a third year staying with Ira and Diane Sarna and their daughters, Lauren and Audra. Yesenia Ayala, 10, is looking forward to her third year with Kate Mayer and Bradley Eggleston and their children, Brady, Eliza, Zoe, and Evan.
The record-holder for returning Fresh Air Fund youngsters is Joshua Rivers, however, who is joining Jeffrey and Janet Neuner and their son, Aiden, for his sixth summer.
âJosh comes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. He is like a part of our family,â Mrs Neuner said.
Other Fresh Air Families and their sponsored children are Nancy and John Murphy, sponsoring Shakera Goodhope; Koren and Peter Kirby, sponsoring Damika Green; Anna and Gary Greenwood, sponsoring Carrie Jeremy; and Margaret and Scott Larsen, sponsoring Kevin McMikle.
Adelaide and Peter Sandler are sponsoring Keana Morales, Bill and Lisa Mathis are sponsoring Musheerah Muhammad, Laura and Mark Kurtz are sponsoring DeNiro Robinson, Sandy and Mark Zielinski are sponsoring Craig Scott, Sharon and Don Sniffen are sponsoring Courtney Simmons, and Diane and Andrew Knapp are sponsoring Serenity Smith.