Crest Couple Opens Hearts, Home

WILDWOOD CREST – “I thought it would be an easy way to give back,” explained Lois Lombardo, when asked why she decided to host an 8-year-old boy from Brooklyn, N.Y. for a week at the shore.
“I’m a Christian, and I like to think that I do what the Bible says,” she continued. “I believe it says to be kind to others, and I thought that by sharing a week with someone from the Fresh Air Fund, it would be a fun, easy, nice thing to do.”
Mid-visit, Lombardo, and her husband, Albert Rolek, agreed that it was fun, but “exhausting.”
More importantly, Bowen Li has been having an “amazing” first visit to the New Jersey shore during his first time participating in the Fresh Air Program.
He was one of 13 New York City children who arrived July 16 to share their summer for one week or more with host families in Central and Southern New Jersey.
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, ages 7-18, from low-income communities since 1877.
Each summer, thousands of children visit volunteer host families in rural, suburban and small-town communities along the East Coast and Southern Canada through The Fresh Air Fund’s Friendly Towns Program. 
“We forgot how exhausting a young child can be,” said Lombardo and Rolek, smiling, as they watched Li “bounce” with energy. A second marriage for both Lombardo and Rolek, the youngest child is 21 and they have no grandchildren.
“When the bus arrived with all the kids, the woman in charge told us Bowen was going to be a lot of fun, and he certainly has been,” Lombardo added. “He’s got a lot of energy, and we’ve been really busy doing a lot of different things.”
Li lives with his parents, maternal grandparents and 6-year-old brother in an apartment where he said he usually doesn’t play outside. He enjoys playing with his brother and watching YouTube videos.
Although he said he’s been to Coney Island, he likes the Wildwood beaches better.
“My favorite thing has been swimming,” the third-grader said. He attends P.S. 160, which is a kindergarten through grade 5 school. According to the school’s website, its population is approximately 1,386 students, of which 68 percent are English language learners and approximately 6 percent are Special Education.
The languages spoken include, but are not limited to: Cantonese, Mandarin, Fukanese, Urdu, Albanian, Arabic, Polish, Russian, Bengali, Turkish, Vietnamese, Hindi, Gujarati, and Romanian. Currently, 100 percent of the students enrolled are eligible for free lunch.
Since coming to the shore, Li has enjoyed bodysurfing and playing basketball with Rolek, riding bikes, eating pizza on the Boardwalk and riding the Wildwood tram car.
On the schedule were trips to the water park, visiting the Cape May County Zoo, attending church services, visiting with family friends and looking at the stars with a telescope.
Li was hesitant when asked if New York pizza was better than that on the Boardwalk, leaving one to wonder if he wasn’t sure, he didn’t think there was a difference or if he knows which side of the dough his sauce is on.   
“My favorite (new) food is pancakes,” he said. He’s also tried Brussels sprouts, potato salad and apple fritters during his visit, which he didn’t like.
“We bonded over the Brussels sprouts,” Rolek said.
“I actually was a little hesitant about hosting a child, but it’s been very enriching,” Rolek admitted. “Bowen is a super kid, and being with him brings out the kid in you.”
Rolek said he enjoyed bodysurfing with Li and helping him learn to swim. “We took a walk on the beach, and he was pretty fascinated watching how the sand spreads out when the waves hit your feet. It’s been a lot of fun.”
As a Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) basketball coach, he’s also had Li on the courts. “He taught me to point my toes in the direction of my shot,” Li said.
Lombardo, who has lived full-time in the area since 2015 and owned property here since 2008, used to summer at the shore as a child. When she saw an ad in the newspaper looking for host families, she decided to apply so she could share those same happy times with another. She’s glad she did.
“We were able to video chat with Bowen and his mom before he arrived, and he was pretty excited to be coming down,” she added.
“He also was a little nervous, but I think being in touch ahead of time helped all of us,” he said.
Li has kept his family informed of his vacation, sending texts and sharing photos from all the activities. “I’ve seen his texts,” Lombardo noted, “and he’s told his mom that he’s having an amazing time. He’s talking about bringing his brother next year.
“I’m glad we were able to do this,” the couple added. “We plan to do it again.”
Anyone interested in hosting a child or children next summer should contact the program at http://www.freshair.org/host
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.