‘Playing Outside’ is What Fresh Air Child Enjoys Most

WILDWOOD CREST – For Youssouff Kamara, the best part of coming to the Jersey Shore is being able to play outside. That’s because the 11-year-old from Bronx, N.Y. lives in a neighborhood that he described as “not safe.”
“It’s something so simple that we all take for granted,” noted Antoinette Conoshenti, “Nanny” to her 10-year-old grandson, Jared Johnson, and his summertime guest, who comes to the shore for two weeks as part of the Fresh Air Program.
Fresh Air Fund children are boys and girls, ages 6 to 18, who live in New York City. The majority are from low-income communities and are registered for the program by more than 90 participating social service and community organizations in the five boroughs. They typically live in apartment buildings, and are more familiar with busy city blocks.
Conoshenti, Johnson and their family, Toni and her husband, Greg Lehman, are hosting Kamara for the second time, having become a Fresh Air host family last year.
In Cape May County, there are three families hosting this summer, which is about the same number of families from previous summers, according to the Fresh Air Fund Program.
In North New Jersey, there are 56 host families and in Central and Southern New Jersey there are 12 families hosting this summer.
“My husband and I got involved with the Fresh Air Fund because we wanted to give back,” Lehman said. “We do a lot of cool things and wanted to be able to share it with someone else.”
Lehman is the principal at Middle Township Middle School, so she’s used to being around pre-teen children. However, she still worried how “two different worlds would come together.
“Youssouff is the sweetest child,” Lehman noted. “He is polite, well-mannered and the boys get along great.”
“He is incredibly polite,” Conoshenti added, “picks up after himself, and does his chores. You can see he was raised right.”
Lehman noted that initially, she was worried whether her Fresh Air child would get homesick during the two-week visit, and whether the child would like staying in Wildwood Crest, which is where her family has had its summer home for 23 years.
Kamara admitted he does get homesick “a little” but texts his mother and sends her photos of all the different activities he’s been doing. He has three brothers and a sister.
“We did a basketball camp last week,” Kamara said, noting it’s one of his favorite activities so far. At the camp, he won recognition for making the most shots in a row in 30 seconds. “I made six.”
Admitting he’s a bit shy and quiet, Kamara has taken his first roller coaster ride, which he described as “fun,” been to the Cape May County Zoo, drove a go-kart, watched a soccer tournament on the beach, and visited the boardwalk several times.
This week’s activities included a dolphin and whale watching ride on the Thundercat, fishing, playing more basketball and being outside.
“I was a little nervous about coming the first time,” he admitted, “but this year I’m just happy. I really enjoy being here because the family respects me, lets me play outside a lot and lets me have these new experiences.”
When he’s home, Kamara said he spends time with his siblings and friends, reads a little, he enjoys the Harry Potter books, plays video games and basketball. He and Johnson enjoy hanging out together, and playing with others in the Wildwood Crest neighborhood.
“It’s fun hanging out with Youssouff,” Johnson noted, “We like doing the same things.”
Any family interested in hosting a child next summer can find information at http://www.freshair.org/host-a-child.
In every volunteer community, there is a volunteer committee and chairperson responsible for publicizing the program, screening applications, checking references, interviewing families in their homes, and approving new hosts.
Committee members also make follow-up visits to all participating host families every three years.
The Fresh Air Fund is an independent, not-for-profit agency that has provided free summer experiences to more than 1.8 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Each summer, close to 4,000 children visit volunteer host families in rural, suburban and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada through The Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family Program.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.