When eight-year-old Tercara from Harlem, New York saw the house near Chelmsford where she would be vacationing for one week eight summers ago, she was beyond excited. She was going to live in what she thought was a real-life mansion.
The home belonged to the family of resident Debbie Carter, a volunteer host mother for the Fresh Air Fund. This non-profit agency, a New York-based group focused on providing inner-city children the chance to explore life outside crowded New York through a vacation with volunteer host families, connected Tercara with Carter's family for both parties’ first summer with the program.
Although Carter was excited to host Tercara, she was slightly nervous to disappoint.
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“I certainly don’t live in a mansion,” she said with a laugh. “But when Tercara finally came and saw the house in person, she said it was better than she ever expected.”
Surpassing a child’s architectural expectations is just one of the many joys that Carter, now the co-chairwoman of the Chelmsford area branch of the Fresh Air Fund, has experienced through her involvement with the program.
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“I began hosting in 2000, when my daughter was eight,” she said. “We hosted Tercara, who was the same age. The girls have maintained a friendship. In fact, my daughter just went to New York to visit her.”
Like Carter, many other families in Chelmsford have offered their time and homes to the Fresh Air Fund. The program seeks friendly homes that are willing to take in an inner city child for one or two weeks in the summer. Donna Parlee, who also began hosting 11 years ago from her farm in Chelmsford, is a veteran to the program.
“It has given me and my kids a whole new prospective of what it is to live on a farm and experience fresh air,” she said. Like Carter, Parlee has maintained close relationships with many of the kids her family has hosted throughout the years.
“My family and I are attending the wedding of our first Fresh Air Fund child, Kevin, who is now 22,” she said.
Although the program is designed for families to host a child for a short, designated time in the summer, both Carter and Parlee agree that the experience is much more long-term.
“My family has gotten much more from our first Fresh Air daughter than we ever gave to her," said Carter.
“These kids have really touched our lives. I get calls on Mother’s Day from them, they show my kids how blessed they are. It’s really just made such a positive impact," said Parlee.
The mission of the Fresh Air Fund is to simply take children like Tercara and Kevin out of their homes in busy New York boroughs and offer them a week of life in suburbia, a cultural transition much more dramatic than some may imagine.
“It really gives kids a taste of a new world to explore," said Parlee. "A world that is more than just concrete and fences. One of our first kids was so concerned that we left our windows open at night for a cross breeze because that would never happen back in his home in New York.”
Carter has similar experiences with children being shocked by the suburban lifestyles Chelmsford families have to offer.
“Kids have come and think host families live in a park because there are swings in front of their house,” she said. “They get so excited by just running around in the backyard carefree. They can’t believe that some families park their car inside a garage connected to their house. They show us everything we really take for granted living here.”
Although Carter and Parlee have both carried out lengthy participation with the program, they both hope to encourage more families to join the organization.
“It is such a wonderful opportunity for the host family to learn and grow while fulfilling childhood memories for the next generation,” said Parlee.
Carter and her co-chairwoman Tricia Harding are responsible for connecting families in the Chelmsford, Westford, Tyngsboro and surrounding areas to children in New York through the Fresh Air Fund.
Carter encourages families interesting in hosting to visit the organization’s website, www.freshair.org, to view more details and information about the program. She said that families should be prepared to get a background check, have interviews conducted with all family members and have references available if they are hoping to host a Fresh Air child.
“We work with the organization and the families to make sure the family dynamics are healthy and there is a good match with a Fresh Air child," she said.
Carter said some families may be nervous about participating in such a life-changing program.
“If a family is not nervous about becoming a host family, they haven’t thought about it enough. But the nervousness is good because it shows they care,” she said.
Both Parlee and Carter agree that caring is the first step in becoming a host family.
“You have the power to give a Fresh Air child a great vacation and remarkable experience,” said Carter. “And perhaps most importantly, you can allow the kid to just be a kid.”
Carter invites those interested to call her directly with any questions at (978) 692-9673.
