opinion | A fresh new way of living

Growing up in the Bronx in the late 1980s, Emanuel Adjekum never felt he lacked things to see or places to go. He loved the city sounds, played whiffle ball and was just into the mix of neighbors taking care of each other, getting together for block parties and organizing trips to Six Flags Great Adventure. He couldn’t imagine loving the outdoors more.

Then in 1990, when he was 7 years old, he spent the summer in Prattsburgh, NY living with a host family through the Fresh Air Fund. His mother thought he should experience a different kind of nature. Life in the tranquility of the Finger Lakes countryside, with its vast farmland and rolling hills, was unsettling at first.

“I couldn’t sleep because all I heard was the crickets,” said Mr. Adjekum.

His host family helped immerse him in rural life, making him less afraid to stand out. His host brother and father taught him how to fish and hunt – activities once foreign to him. The hunt, with its need for precision and understanding of the environment, was not only a time to bond with its host family, but also to practice independence and responsibility. “Self-discipline was very important to them,” he said.

Those are skills he is now proud of, and the stillness of the fields and the space to roam have become a comfort. As much as he enjoyed his adventures at Six Flags, he realized there were other ways to live as well. He could enjoy nature without the constraint of navigating the city’s congestion. His anxiety lessened as he spent more time in the state, and he began to see how much stress he harbored and considered normal.

The fund’s Friendly Towns program lasted two weeks, and after his third year, he decided to stay all summer. As a teenager, he got a job as a hay bale stacker and learned the joy of working with your hands to complete an intensive task. Pursuing that goal taught him the “psychology of life,” Mr Adjekum said.

He also grew close to other members of the community. His friend’s mother in Prattsburgh stood up for him when some of the kids weren’t so welcoming, he said. She and others in the community so supported his growth and education that he eventually moved in with his host family to attend high school in Prattsburgh. His mother believed he would have access to the best possible resources to live in the state. He played on the school’s basketball and baseball teams with his host brother, who was a year older. “We were like peanut butter and jelly,” Mr Adjekum said.

The move changed the trajectory of his life forever. After graduating from high school, he attended a community college, received his bachelor’s degree, and began a career in media production and then recruiting. Mr Adjekum, now 40, said he keeps in touch with his host family and ‘upstate brother’. He recently returned to Prattsburgh when his host father fell ill.

His son is now the same age as Mr. Adjekum was when he first went to Prattsburgh, and he is teaching his child the lessons of respect and acceptance he learned through the community that embraced him. He wants his son to have the same opportunities to experience as many ways of living and learning as possible, to have a broader view of the world. “It opened up so many doors I didn’t even know existed,” he said. “It’s like being in a store and you don’t even know there’s all this behind this door.”

The Fresh Air Fund strives to reach nearly 3,000 New York City children from low-income families through its various programs. A donation of $3,047 will enable one participant to stay with a host family, and $2,866 will send someone to camp for a two-week session. The fund hopes to raise about $12 million this year.

Tax-deductible contributions may be made to the Fresh Air Fund, 633 Third Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY, 10017. Families wishing to host and parents wishing to enroll their children may call the Fresh Air Fund at (800 ) 367-0003 or visit www.freshair.org.