Ridgefield Families Show Fresh Air Kids Endless Fun

Monday, Thewelcomed twenty-three children, ages 6-18 to Newtown, Connecticut. Upon arrival, they were welcomed with hugs fromthat some of the children had stayed with before, and others were just meeting for the first time.

Shawnelle, Angelica, Sophia, Kate, Jameek  and Jia were some of the children that joined families in Ridgefield for the summer.

“This is our second time doing it,” Deirdre Klyne said. “I’ve seen a change in the kids when they leave to go back home. They have a lot more from staying here.”

Klyne often fills her young visitors’ summers with s’more making and .

“They get to do different things that they wouldn’t have been able to do in the city,” she said.

Jameek and Jia were welcomed by Klyne and couldn’t wait to begin their visit.

“I have lots of fun with the other kids and I get to swim in their pool,” ten-year-old Jameek said. “I like that they treat me nice.”

Shawnelle and Angelica, although staying with the same family, are having completely different experiences this summer. Shawnelle has been visitng and her family for the past eight-years. Angelica arrived on Monday with the Fresh Air Fund for the first time.

“Having fun up here and being with my host family is my favorite thing,” Shawnelle said.

Shawnelle is looking forward to swimming this summer, an activity he said he learned from Craighead when he was ten-years-old.  He is already planning to come up for a visit this winter, for Spring Break and next summer.  Since getting back to the Craighead’s home, Shawnelle has already caught up with some of his old friends from Ridgefield, Carey and Mike.

“Mostly, we’ve just been hanging out and we went over to my friend’s and used their hot tub last night,” Cary said.

Shawnelle, Carey and Mike also find themselves at theduring the day. Mike is looking forward to the arrival of his Fresh Air friend, Devante to arrive on the next FAF trip. Devante who couldn’t arrive with Shawnelle and Angelica, will be coming up later in the summer for his fourth visit.

“My favorite part of this is just seeing the kids’ joy of being out of the city,” host parent, Peter Reich said.

With several Fresh Air Fund trips in the coming weeks, there will be more children arriving in Fairfield County to be greeted by their host families. Nicola Davies and her family are looking forward to meeting their Fresh Air Fund visitor next month.

“This is our first year doing it,” Davies said. “Somehow it seeped into my mind to do the Fresh Air Fund,” she said. “We are looking forward to more chaos.”

The Davies may be the only Wilton host family participating in the Fresh Air Fund effort next month, according to Davies.

“They put you in touch with a local coordinator and they come for a home visit,” she explained. “We have to fill out an application before they give us permission to host a child for the summer.”

Davies feels that there are more kids that want to come than there are families available to host them. She encourages other Ridgefield families to get involved. She feels that it is not only the child that gets a rewarding experience, but the host families who do as well.

“As a family, we get so much out of it,” Davies said.

Sophia, Kate and Jia swam in one of the host family’s pools on Wednesday night. The adults and older kids ate and talked about their experiences. Sarah Hunter, a lifeguard from the Boys and Girls Club was poolside, keeping the kids free from harm.

“I started at the Boys and Girls Club yesterday,” she said. ‘The kids have been having a ball.”

“Sometimes when I’m out in town with my Fresh Air kids, they know more kids around town than I do,” host parent, Lisa-Braden Harder said. “They know everyone through the Boys and Girls Club.”

This summer is the fourth-year that Braden-Harder has participated in the effort. Craighead got her involved when she started hosting Shawnelle for the summer. The most rewarding thing for Braden-Harder to see is the impact that the FAF kids have on her own children, she explained.

“The experience teaches my kids how to share their stuff,” she said.

The youngest FAF child, Angelica, may have been the bravest of them all. At six years old, she is away from home for almost two weeks for the first time.

“It’s my first time away from my house for ten days,” she said. “I’ve been away from my house for two days, but not ten,” she said. “I had to get out here to see the trees, we don’t have them there at my house.”

Excited to be with her host family, get some fresh air and , Angelica has welcomed her host family with open arms as they have done for her. In the coming weeks, the FAF kids will be discovering Ridgefield and the families in it. To find out more about the Fresh Air Fund, go to http://www.freshair.org/.