Fresh Air Fund connects local families with kids
Program provides summer experiences for NYC children
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Tamari Dyke wanted to visit a home where he could get more attention.
Dyke has three brothers, two of whom were two-year-old twins when he met a local family — the Fords — through the Fresh Air Fund.
The Fresh Air Fund provides children from New York City with the opportunity to visit families living in areas from Canada down to Virginia during the summer.
“In 1877, The Fresh Air Fund, an independent not-for-profit organization, was created with one simple mission – to allow children living in low-income communities to enjoy free summer experiences in the country,” according to the organization’s website.
Dyke was 8 years old the first time he took the bus that brought him — and other Fresh Air Fund children — to Saratoga County. The Fords couldn’t wait to welcome the boy who requested a family without young children.
On Friday, Dyke made another trip to spend time this summer with Lisa and Douglas Ford.
The Fords became involved
with Fresh Air Fund thanks to Patty Leroy. Leroy has volunteered with Fresh Air Fund for 51 years now, and Leroy doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“I love it, and I will be in it forever,” said Leroy. “I will be in it until the very last day.”
Leroy attended a rotary club meeting several years ago to speak about the Fresh Air Fund program. As soon as Douglas Ford heard Leroy speak, he knew the Fords wanted to a host a child from New York City.
The Fords have two children who both attended college in Nyack. Whenever their children brought friends up from the city, the Fords couldn’t believe how unfamiliar those friends were with the country.
“When we heard about the Fresh Air fund it was like, we can do this for a child and expose them much earlier,” said Lisa Ford.
“And that was really what inspired us, was the kids bringing their friends home. It’s like a different world. Even for the college students, it was a different world. So when we had an opportunity to do it for a child, it just was a no-brainer.”
About 30 children arrived on a rainy afternoon recently at the PBA Range. Some families were participating in Fresh Air Fund for the first time, while others were veterans like the Fords.
Four times every summer the busses arrive in Saratoga County. Just under 100 families donate their time to bring children into their homes. Sometimes the children attend The Great Escape, or visit one of the local lakes.
Often, however, the children simply want to play outside.
“A lot of the kids just want to go outside and play,” said Leroy. “They want to ride bikes. They want to have fun.”
Dyke likes to learn new things, meet new people and, of course, play outside.
“Anything that we do where we’re paying attention to him is what’s important. Simple things. We take him fishing. Last year we took him to Moreau Lake and he swam in the lake. He immediately makes friends with the other kids that are there. He’s not stuck to our side,” said Lisa Ford. “He loves to do anything that my husband and my son-in-law, any projects that they are working on.”
Last year, Douglas Ford worked on a shed.
“It was fun and I got to spend more time outside and I got to learn something new,” said Dyke. “I learned how to accurately paint on the side of a shed and how to fix it.”
This year, Dyke will help lay flooring.
Dyke is from Brooklyn. The Fords keep in touch with him during the year. Every time he leaves, tears are involved.
“Some of the kids cry because they are going back to not the best home. Tamari cries. We know he’s going back to a great home,” said Lisa Ford. “His mom is absolutely wonderful. But he cries just because he’s going to miss us so bad.”
The first summer Dyke spent with the Fords, he learned how to properly pump on a swing.
“When he went back to school he had to write a paragraph about his favorite thing over the summer, and that’s what he wrote about,” said Lisa Ford.
“It was such a simple thing that made such a huge difference to him. It’s not the big things.”
Lisa Ford sees the value in the Fresh Air Fund; it’s changed the Fords’ lives.
“It’s just the best program. It doesn’t cost us anything. It doesn’t cost them anything. If people only knew. This is the thing that I tell people: We got into this program so that we might be able to bless a child, and we really feel like we have been the ones that have been blessed,” said Lisa Ford. “If people would even just take that one step, you know, make the time, and you could change the life of a child. It’s really the best program.”
For more information about the program, visit http://www.freshair.org/.
“It was fun and I got to spend more time outside and I got to learn something new. I learned how to accurately paint on the side of a shed and how to fix it.” — Tamari Dyke, Fresh Air Fund attendee