Fresh Air Fund

I'm a city girl. Big time. Love me New York, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Melbourne. Bright lights, big buildings, lots of action and bustle. But every so often you need some silence. Some stillness. An escape to greener meadows and kind people and country cooking. Not long ago I had a few days away in the mountains, and lately I've been searching for somewhere to head again for a few days. Nothing major, I'm just about to finish my degree and feel like I deserve a couple of days of nice clean sheets and crisp air.

Which is why, when I got an email from Sara Wilson from The Fresh Air Fund asking me to talk about them on my blog, I decided that I actually would. Basic gist: the Fresh Air Fund gives around 10,000 New Yorker low income kids a chance to get away from the city and have a country holiday. They get hosted by families or go on camps and get to run, play, have fun, escape their crap and also hear some positive and inspiring stuff. As well as getting some career info and guidance. Good stuff really.

Few reasons why I thought I should blog about it:

1. No one ever emails me at the blog address email I have. Sara did. Triple points, ten thumbs up and a gold star sticker for that. I'm a sucker for it. In fact, email me something and I will probably do it.

2. The Fresh Air Fund currently have a deal thing on where every dollar you donate before June 30th will be matched 'by a group of generous donors'. Which means that basically everything you do donate is doubled, which is awesome. Plus, who are these mysterious generous donors? Bill and Melinda Gates? A bunch of hard core hip hop artists from the hood who are giving back?

3. And THEN I realised that there are camps called Camp Mariah after Mariah Carey and Camp Tommy after Tommy Hilfiger, who are both major supporters. Um... Camp Mariah? CAMP MARIAH? Mariah is one of our key dance party movers. I imagine Camp Mariah goes a little something like this:

Which is Owen Pallet aka Final Fantasy covering Mariah Carey. Cause Song BMG won't let me embed anything. Jeez. But just like that, but with some singalongs and dance moves. I think I want to go on Camp Mariah. I support any kid who chooses Camp Mariah.

4. When I was in Spain, I lived with a host family for a year. They didn't know me, in fact had seen NOTHING about me (I did fill out some intro forms and sent photos etc, but they actually agreed to host me before seeing them) and still they agreed to let me live in their house for nearly an entire YEAR. It blew my mind. They were so open, so caring, so loving. Gave me amazing food, took me to amazing places, helped me learn Spanish - even though I arrived only knowing how to say my name - and are people that I still keep in contact with and love dearly. Even though I still haven't sent them a Christmas present. Fuck. Feel guilty. And basically, Fresh Air Fund needs peeps to host kids. Don't think you need to be the stereotype of a family with 2.5 kids to host, anyone can do it.

5. I read a comment on the Fresh Air Fund website "I like the way the stars look where my host family live" - and that just got me a little melty inside. Oh dear. Cause New York is beautiful at night. But not a star to be seen. Well, none in the sky anyway.

So how about you think of hosting someone for a few weeks if you are in the area? Or donating some bucks and having it doubled by mystery donors - i'm so betting it's Nick Cannon. He's totally trying to win over Mariah because he knows it won't last forever. Or, even just blogging or tweeting about it.

And if you don't? That's fine. But, you know what you'll be right?

New York skyline pic from here.