When Brianna Sims of Brooklyn, N.Y. Learned her mother had arranged for her to spend two weeks in Maine, three years ago, she knew very little about the Pine Tree State. Sims’ mother is a social worker and had placed other children in the Fresh Air Fund’s Friendly Town summer program during, so they could experience new places and learn about other ways of living.
According to the website at freshair.org, The Fresh Air Fund is an independent, not-for-profit agency that has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. More than 9,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually.
There are 305 rural and suburban Friendly Towns in 13 Northeastern states and Canada. This 2012 season, Lincoln County was host to 12 out of the 22 city children being hosted in the Woolwich/Boothbay Friendly Town area.
All members of prospective host families are screened over the phone and in person. Families provide references and background checks are conducted on all adults in a host family’s household. A host family can request the age and gender of its Fresh Air visitor. A local volunteer chairperson oversees all families in a Friendly Town, checks in with children while they are visiting host families and sometimes organizes activities for all host families while the children are visiting.
Local Friendly Town chairwoman Jayne Cahill said she is always looking to speak to individuals or groups of any size about the program and what it means to the children. Children must meet income guidelines, such as eligibility for the reduced-price school lunch program. Children are covered by private, state or Fresh Air-sponsored health insurance and Friendly Town pays for transportation While some arrive with a little bit of pocket money, most have no discretionary cash for their visit to the country.
“There is a huge need for families to open their homes and their hearts,” Cahill said. “We’re always looking for families. It’s not about spending money, it’s about spending time.”
“So my mom signed me up,” Sims said, speaking in the Nobleboro kitchen of host parents Tonia McLaughlin and James Keene.
“I just knew it was up north,” she said of the state where she has spent at least two weeks of every summer since that time. “I almost didn’t come when I heard they had no TV.” The Keene-McLaughlin family watches movies and plays some video games, but has chosen not to receive broadcast or cable TV in their house
Now 14-years-old, Sims lives in a community of apartment buildings, rapid transit and urban storefronts in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. She will start school next fall as a freshman at Leadership and Public Service High School, a public school in Lower Manhattan.
She said her friends in the city spend most of their summers swimming at a local pool or heading to Brooklyn’s beaches, watching television and going into Manhattan for entertainment. To keep in touch during the summer, Sims calls and texts friends who have stayed in New York.
Three summers ago, she joined a busload of children, age 11 and older, who traveled from the city to a parking lot in Topsham where they were met my their summer hosts.
“I thought it was going to be very quiet and relaxed and boring, almost, but it wasn’t,” Sims said. “I saw a bunch of cars and a bunch of people. They called my name and I saw Tonia.”
Those first few nights, the unfamiliar sound of crickets kept her awake. Now she finds them familiar and likes the sounds of the family’s chickens that wake her each morning.
Sims was not the first city child to spend time with the Nobleboro family, McLaughlin said. She said they wanted their children Shiann and Mason, now 14 and 11, respectively, to learn about life outside of Maine. The first year Sims joined them, they already had a boy visiting through the program. Sims arrived after he went home and spent two weeks in Maine. Last year, she had another two-week stay, at the same time another boy was part of the family.
“This year we wanted to have Brianna the whole summer,” McLaughlin said. Sims arrived July 9 and will return to Brooklyn Aug. 15.
Cahill said many families participate year after year. While children must be between the ages of 6 and 11 to enter the program, once they begin they may return to their summer hosts until age 18. Cahill is a volunteer who also hosts fresh air children.
“You can establish a lifelong friendship with these children,” Cahill said. “The goal is to have them become part of the family. I couldn’t imagine my life without these children in it.”
Cahill said there is a long waiting list of children who would like to join the program.
While in Maine, Sims has been to horse camp, learning enough to earn fifth place in the show horse event at the Pittston Fair. She said she hopes to continue riding.
The family has been white-water rafting and camping in Boothbay and Sims learned water skiing on Damariscotta Lake, where the family keeps a boat at a relative’s camp. She even tried surfing at Scarborough Beach.
“She is willing to try anything,” McLaughlin said. “She has a really good attitude.” A trip to Freeport was her first introduction to L.L. Bean.
“I liked it a lot,” she said. Sims said the moose and pond in the middle of the store and the boats hanging from the rafters were interesting.
When told she would be going to Portland she expected to find highrise buildings.
“It’s cute,” Sims said of Maine’s largest city. “Cute little stores, cobblestone streets.” Plans for the rest of her stay include a train trip to Boston on the Downeaster.
Cahill said that, while many families plan vacations around a Fresh Air visit, excursions are not required or expected.
“A lot of these children aren’t familiar with what its like to lay in the grass, look at the stars and breathe fresh air,” she said. “It’s not about going places.”
Shiann’s friends and cousins have taken the New Yorker under their wing, sharing birthday celebrations and impromptu sleepover parties. McLaughlin said a visit to Sims in Brooklyn fell through last summer but is still being planned.
Shiann Keene said having a summer sister was “really cool. She’s just an amazing person.” While he said one sister is enough, brother Mason Keene said he liked Sims’ cooking.
At school, Sims enjoys math and language arts. She said many of her city friends think of Maine as a land of farms and don’t understand why she would come to a rural place.
“I have more fun here than I did in New York, sometimes,” she said. Instead of spending hours watching television, Sims has learned scrapbooking. She said she has lost track of the shows she used to watch.
“My best friend wants to come up here,” she said, adding her friend was apprehensive about meeting new people. “They’re so closed into the (urban) environment. They don’t want to go out. You have to try new things.”
McLaughlin said participating in the Fresh Air program has given the family a lot to be grateful for.
“We did this for selfish reasons,” she said. “She brought us culture, style and giggling.”
“I think people are a little standoffish,” Cahill said of the need for host families. “They don’t need to be afraid of the program. It’s a week out of your time or maybe 2 weeks. You don’t have to be married and you don’t have to be rich. You can stretch a box of macaroni and cheese.”
Sims said she’ll be glad to see her friends when she returns to Brooklyn but, “The summer is my time to do something I don’t do all year.” One of those things, swimming in Damariscotta Lake, typifies her experience in Maine. She said the pools at home always have a bottom at a predictable depth. Here, she often finds herself in over her head.
“In the lake, I can’t always touch the bottom, but that’s okay,” Sims said.
For more information about the Friendly Town program, contact Jayne Cahill at 751-2271, email her at cahill34@comcast.net or visit the website at www.freshair.org. Cahill said she would be happy to answer any questions and begin interviewing prospective hosts for the 2013 season at any time.
