Fresh Air Camp

This is a photo of my mom (foreground) and her sister, Gertie, at a farm in upstate New York. The Lott family sponsored them through the Fresh Air Fund.

"Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund has been giving inner-city children the joy of a summer vacation with volunteer host families and at Fund camps, creating unforgettable memories and fresh possibilities."

From my mother's eulogy:
Some of the most significant childhood events of my mother’s life occurred around age nine when she and her sister Gertie were sent to Fresh Air Camp, a program that still operates to this day. The program sends poor children from New York City to live with families in the country or small towns. The first year, Rita and Gertie stayed two weeks with the Lott family on a farm near Canajoharie, New York. The second summer, they stayed with the same family for even longer.
Those two trips opened my mother’s eyes to life beyond the city. She held a little chick, picked wild berries, rode in a hay-wagon drawn by horses, and enjoyed an altogether less-crowded place than a New York apartment packed with a family of nine. There is no way to easily convey how much this one experience influenced my mother’s life. She spoke of it often, saying of her host family, “They gave me a whole new respect for the goodness of people.” Rita described the experience in detail for her grandson as part of a grade-school project; the whole family treasures her description.