Taking the plunge

By David Maurer

Published: August 11, 2008

Wrapped in a towel after a bracing swim in a nearby pond, Dave Smith laughed and looked around at members of his surrogate family.

The 16-year-old from the big city was about to tell it like it was, and his polite nature required him to voice a “no offense intended” disclaimer.

For the past seven summers Dave has been traveling from New York City to spend a few weeks with Cheryl and Stephen Parks’ family at their Albemarle County home.

The annual getaways have been orchestrated by the Fresh Air Fund, now in its 132nd summer. The nonprofit organization takes children ages 6 to 18 who are living in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the five boroughs of New York and connects them with host families in 13 northeastern states and Canada.

The aim is to provide the kids with the opportunity to enjoy the simple pleasures of the outdoors far from the clamor and pollution of the city. Although it turned out to be an opportunity of a lifetime for Dave, he didn’t know what was ahead when he was 9 and taking his first trip south.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Dave said as he pulled the towel tighter around his shoulders. “I thought it was just going to be some weird family I had to stay with.

“Coming from New York, I knew it was going to be completely different. But when I got here it was just a warm and happy welcome.

“I pretty much felt at home right away. When I first met them it was like I was already part of the family.”

Dave, and 1.7 million other kids who have benefited from the program, have the Rev. Willard Parsons to thank. In 1877 as the minister of a small rural parish in Sherman, Pa., he presented an ambitious plan to his congregation.

Parsons had become aware of the often unhealthy conditions many New York City youngsters were living under at the time. Overcrowded tenements were ideal incubators for disease, and many children were becoming victims of a tuberculosis epidemic that was ravaging the city.

Fresh air was what most physicians were prescribing for the illness, but that was in short supply in a teeming metropolis of smokestacks and brick-sided canyons. So Parsons encouraged his flock to volunteer as host families for the city’s neediest kids.

The good people of the farming community embraced the concept and the Fresh Air Fund was born.

As the Parks family has learned, the hosts can benefit greatly from the experience as well.

Cheryl Parks became aware of the program in 2001 after reading an article about it in The Daily Progress. Intrigued, she clipped the story and, after the family discussed it, they decided to give it a try.

“In 2002 we called about being a host and Dave came that year, and has been coming ever since,” Cheryl Parks said. “We had a girl come as well for a couple of summers, but as she got older she got busy doing other things.

“But every year Dave has made it a point to get our scheduled locked in, and then he works around that. From the beginning, and I have to be really honest, it has been very easy doing this.

“Dave was a little shy the first year, a little quiet. Everything was new to him so he was a little timid of the dogs, a snake if he saw one, the animals, the quiet, the dark — those kind of things.

“But every year since, it has been like a cousin coming for his summer visit. It has been really nice to see my children come to love a person who came to us as a complete stranger, and who we now all love and see as a member of our family.”

The Parkses have five children, and four of them were still living at home when Dave started visiting. Traditions can serve to strengthen family bonds, and one was established when Dave and the three children nearest his age went into the lemonade-stand business.

Building and running the lemonade stand helped lay the foundation of deep friendships among Dave and 19-year-old Zack, and Jake, 16, and Jessica, 14. In addition to making them a little spending money, the lemonade stand also provided some of their most cherished summertime memories.

“The first year it was Dave, Jessica and myself, and Jake would come in and out,” Zack said. “Dave made all the signs and would sit there at the stand all day.

“My job was kind of to watch over them, because they were really young when it first started. Dave and Jessica would sit that thing up every day on the corner. And then all day they were out there trying to get people to buy the lemonade.”

This year’s proceeds from the lemonade stand were donated to a fund established for one of Jessica’s close friends who was seriously injured in a car accident. Working together at the stand served to make Dave and Jessica best friends.

“Making a best friend is special, because you can only have so many,” Jessica said. “Dave and I had so many things in common that we just clicked from the first year.

“We talked about everything. Even though he is from a different place, we can relate, and it’s cool seeing how that can happen.

“Before Dave came to visit I had never looked beyond my family. I just thought everyone did the same thing. Then Dave came here and started to talk to us about what he did in New York, and I could see it was a lot different.”

Each placement with a host family costs the fund $986. Among the things the organization does is help the prospective families prepare for the child’s visit by supplying them with dos and don’ts as well as helpful suggestions.

The common sense guidelines, with the exceptions of a few modern updates, might have been created by Parsons and his down-to-earth farming friends.

One of the problems almost every kid has to deal with is homesickness. Dave was no exception.

“When I got homesick I would usually call my mom to get over it,” Dave said. “It was nice to know my family missed me as much as I missed them.

“Now I get homesick for here. I usually come in July, and I’ll start packing two weeks ahead of time.

“I wish more kids could do this. If I hadn’t come here I don’t think I would ever have had another experience like this in New York or any other place.”

More than 65 percent of Fresh Air kids are invited back by host families summer after summer. First-time visits are two weeks, but extended visits for a re-invited child can be arranged.

“One of the reasons I felt very comfortable about trying this is that the group has been around for so long,” Cheryl Parks said. “When I saw that I thought, ‘Well, something is working right for them to have been around for so long.’

“They have some very qualified people running the program. Nearly 5,000 kids go to host homes each summer. If things don’t work out they will send somebody to pick a child up, and bring them back home.”

Input from the Fresh Air kids themselves is valued. They say they like to do things like make new friends, run barefoot in the grass, splash in backyard sprinklers, see farm animals, pick berries, catch fireflies, go on hikes, count stars.

Dave can add swimming in the pond and enjoying the beauty and freshness of the Virginia countryside to his personal list. His time here has given him a strong appreciation for nature.

“When I was in New York I was used to just throwing things wherever, because it was all dirty anyway,” Dave said. “But here I learned to be more appreciative to nature around me.

“Everything here is so clean, you want to keep it that way.”

Dave said he’ll continue to visit his extended family after he’s no longer a Fresh Air kid. Family is family after all.

“It’s so nice having another family, and having experiences with them,” Dave said as a serious tone came into his voice. “When I was living in the Bronx I barely went outside.

“Here we do so many more things out in an open environment. You go outside and see all the trees and the sun actually coming out.

“In New York there’s too much pollution to actually see anything like that. It’s nice to just see the open spaces and all the trees.”

To learn more about the Fresh Air Fund visit http://www.freshair.org, or call (800) 367-0003.