The Friendly Town Program allows children from the city to spend two weeks with a suburban family and experience life in a different environment.
By: Audrey Levine
"Thank you," she said as she and her surrogate family left the arena after seeing the Jonas Brothers in concert. She gave her "father" a big hug as they headed back for home, her three "sisters" talking excitedly about the concert.
"It was a very touching moment," said Maria LoCicero, of Raddell Court, whose family greeted 10-year-old Tamika Jenkins, of the Bronx, into their home for two weeks as part of The Fresh Air Fund Friendly Town Program. "She was a delightful child, full of laughter and spunk, and it was a very nice experience."
The Fresh Air Fund Friendly Town Program allows inner city children to spend two weeks over the summer with a suburban family and experience life in a different environment.
"The children get to get out of the city and see another side of life," said Jody Berkowitz, co-chairwoman of the Somerset County Friendly Town area and participant for the past six years. "They learn a lot from being with a different family."
For Ms. LoCicero, who participated in the program for the first time this year, it was a chance not only to help another child, but to learn a little something about herself as well.
"You do love this child as your own," she said. "I found you always have room in your heart to love another child."
According to Ms. Berkowitz, to qualify for the program, children must require some form of government assistance with their families. The children can apply for the program through social services agencies, after which they are matched with families looking for children of their gender and age.
"They go out to 13 different Northeastern states," she said of the program, which extends from Virginia to Maine.
Ms. LoCicero said her family found a perfect match in Tamika, who hit it off right away with her 9-year-old daughter, Jessica. She said she would hear the two girls giggling together before they went to sleep each night.
"I remember Tamika taught them a dance one night," Ms. LoCicero said. "My girls were just mimicking her and it was plain old good fun."
In addition to dancing, Ms. LoCicero said, the family spent the two weeks traveling to the beach, going to a local balloon festival and taking other day trips together.
Ms. Berkowitz said the host families must submit an application, do an interview and participate in a background check, conducted by the program, in order to be considered.
"We want to make sure that what the host families request is a good match," she said. "We look at possible safety issues."
According to its Web site, the nonprofit program has been in existence since 1877 and has helped more than 1.7 million New York City children.
"My experience happened to be terrific," Ms. LoCicero said. "You are doing this for the child, but you are blessed because you’re helping someone else. It was great to share with someone who might not have the same opportunities as us."
Ms. Berkowitz said many of the children return to the same families year after year and Ms. LoCicero expects to be no different, as she said she might be welcoming Tamika back again next summer.
"She already asked if she could stay for three weeks next year," Ms. LoCicero said. "It was amazing how the kids got along."
Ms. Berkowitz said the program is free for the children wishing to participate and the only expenses come from the families going about their daily lives with an extra body in the house. Even so, she said, the program is absolutely not just a benefit to the inner city children participating.
"The children of the host have to learn to share with a complete stranger," she said. "They learn that not everyone can have everything."
For the LoCiceros, after a concert and other adventures, Tamika and her host family were no longer strangers, but a new kind of family.
"She called me ‘Mom,’" Ms. LoCicero said. "She is the youngest of four children at home, but here, she was the oldest, and she had an amazing time."

