Since its inception in 1877, the Fresh Air Fund has given 1.8 million children a summer getaway from New York City. The fund’s successes go beyond the number of children whom it has helped:

4 The fund has given nearly two-thirds of its participants their first night away from New York City without family.

4 More than half of the children whom the fund helps are from resource-poor areas of the city’s five boroughs.

4 Host families for the Friendly Towns program reside in 14 states along the Eastern Seaboard in addition to parts of southern Canada, in rural and suburban communities.

4 For the Friendly Town program, events are organized locally and a chairperson is responsible for overseeing host families in each area.

4 Friendly Town host families can, and often do, reinvite Fresh Air children they have hosted in successive years.

4 The fund also has a number of academic and personal development programs during the school year, so participants can continue growing year-round.