Fresh Air summers are filled with children running through the sprinklers in the grass, gazing at star-filled skies and swimming for the first time. This summer, families are invited to join other volunteer host families in Central Maine and open their hearts and homes to Fresh Air children.

Each summer, thousands of children from New York City’s low-income communities visit suburban, rural and small town communities along the East Coast and Southern Canada through the Fresh Air Fund’s Friendly Towns Program.

The Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer experiences to more than 1.8 million New York City children since 1877. Fresh Air children are boys and girls, from age 7 to 18, who live in New York City. Children who are reinvited by host families may continue with the Fresh Air Fund through age 18 and can have extended trips.

For more information about hosting a Fresh Air child this summer, contact Katrina Cash-Staley at 207-420-5795 or visit www.freshair.org.

Fresh Air teen Priscilla Galindo, center, of the Bronx enjoys some quality summer time with host family members Darlene, left, and Jenna Ginsberg at their Martin Road farm in Rumford in 2015. (Terry Karkos/Sun Journal file photo)