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Community Corner

Former Fresh Air child thanks her host, Auntie Vickie

“I’m a country girl at heart thanks to Auntie Vickie and the rest of my former Fresh Air Fund host family,” remarks Brooklyn native Avelina Santiago Obando. “I was seven-years-old, shy but outgoing and always friendly, when my mother signed me up for The Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family Program.  I would spend summers with Auntie Vickie and her family at their home in Coventry, RI.”

The Fresh Air Fund is an independent, not-for-profit agency that has provided free summer experiences to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. 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.

While growing up in Brooklyn, NY, it was hard for Avelina to experience summer in the city, but, while visiting Auntie Vickie, she took full advantage of the Fresh Air and summer fun of Coventry. “I rode a horse at a ranch. I played outside. I swam in their pool and my favoring, in Johnson’s pond. I went to their daughter’s wedding. They showed me a different way of life.”

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Avelina now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband. “We have our own home, and have roots. I wanted to have that, have roots. Our home is gray and red,” and reminds her of one she loved in Rhode Island.

“Auntie Vickie is such a strong woman, and I am now too because of her. She gave me strength and the ability to overcome anything. She let me see the world in a different way and always encouraged me to succeed.” Avelina continues that, “She is a really special person and has a special place in my heart.” Through the years, her relYou have give people time, and she always gave me her time. I could not say better things about The Fresh Air Fund. I would not have had these opportunities it the programs didn’t exist.” 

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The Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for-profit agency, is always seeking host families to enable as many New York City children as possible to benefit from a summer experience outside of the city. To learn more about how to become a host family for next summer, please contact Donna Barboza at 401-333-6401 or visit The Fresh Air Fund online at www.freshair.org.

 

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