City Kids Arrive in Rye for Week of Fresh Air

Two smiling city kids stepped off the Metro North train in Rye and into the arms of welcoming families who will be hosting them for the next week as part of the Fresh Air Funds Host Family program.

Within the first minute of the meeting, seven-year-old twins Adrianne and Andrew Cuevas-Abreu were telling their guest Alyssa they have a new waterslide, her eyes widened and mouth dropped.

“Are you kidding me?” she asked.

They excitedly told her no. Alyssa said she was excited to have fun with the twins and bashfully said she hopes to get a chance to ride a bike and go to the pool.

Alyssa is one of 11 New York City children who will arrive in Rye this summer to spend one or two weeks with volunteer host families in Darien, Stamford, New Rochelle, New Canaan, Westport, Greenwich, Carmel, and Ossining

The Cuevas-Abreus, a New Rochelle family, decided to host a Fresh Air fund child after seeing an advertisement for it in New York Times.

“My husband and I had talked about it a couple of years ago but never did anything about it so when we saw the ad we decided we should do it now,” said Dionne Cuevas-Abreu.

They plan to take Alyssa to the beach at Glen Island, do “pool stuff” play outside and hopefully teach her some tennis.

Eight-year-old Rohan, also from Brooklyn, got a big hug from his host mother Judith Brisson when he walked off the train Wednesday. The Brissons, Ossining residents, are excited to take Rohan hiking and to Westchester County parks they frequent.

“I had a neighbor growing up who did this and had a kid visit for five years in a row, so they were like part of the neighborhood,” Judith Brisson said.

When she saw a flier for the program in the library she and her husband Greg decided it was time to participate. Their son Jack, 6, said he was looking forward to having a visitor for all the fireworks they will see this weekend.

Both families said they liked the Fresh Air Fund program and felt comfortable that they had a representative see their home and meet them in person. Southern Westchester Fresh Air Fund volunteer Chairperson Cecily Lynett personally vetted the families. She got involved after participating as a host herself. Lynett, a Rye resident, explained that 1,000 families are participating this year, but Fresh Air has 4,000 kids that would like to be placed with a host family. 

Families get to choose the gender and age range of the child that will visit them, but don’t learn too much else. In Rohan’s case, the Brisson’s knew he liked mashed potatoes and sausage. In Alyssa’s case, the Cuevas-Abreu’s knew she liked reading, writing and Barbie dolls.

The families quickly learned more.

“I like art, I like drawing, I like pictures, and I am very creative,” Rohan said. Having never hiked before, Rohan was excited to try it out.

All smiles, the families headed to their cars to start their Fresh Air adventures, the Cuevas-Abreu twins and Alyssa rattling off more plans for the week.

The Fresh Air Fund is an independent, not-for-profit agency that has provided free summer experiences to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Each summer, over 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.