Fresh Air family forms close bond with visitor
The Butlers are already making future plans with their special summer guest
SOUTH BRUNSWICK — A township family is giving back to a program that several years ago gave their son a special opportunity.
Debra and Robert Butler lived in Brooklyn when their son, Cory, who is now 18, went to visit a family in Pennsylvania through the Fresh Air Fund’s host family program.
"It was an experience for [Cory] because he never milked a cow before," Mrs. Butler said.
The Fresh Air Fund program, which dates to 1877, enables inner-city children to visit suburban or rural families for two weeks over the summer to get a taste of life outside the city.
The Butlers, who moved to South Brunswick in 1993 because of job transfers to the South Brunswick post office where they both work, welcomed their first Fresh Air visitor this summer.
Eight-year-old Tavares Civers of the Bronx, N.Y., spent two weeks with the family, including Cory and his 4-year-old brother, Korrell.
Mr. Butler, who has had a perfect attendance record at his job at the South Brunswick post office for the last two years, took off for two weeks to be with their guest, and Mrs. Butler rearranged her work schedule so that she could get off earlier in the day to spend as much time with them as possible.
During his two-week visit, which ended Tuesday, Tavares got to go swimming, ice skating and roller skating and did other activities that children in a suburban setting take for granted.
He got to play in the parks, went to a water park and rode bicycles with Korrell and the neighborhood children — things he could not do as freely in the Bronx.
"You do feel like you’re in a different world out here," Mrs. Butler said.
The Butlers had wanted to do something involving children for some time, she noted. They had talked about adopting or fostering a child, but various conflicts, including work schedules, made that option impossible, so her husband suggested they try being a host family.
They contacted South Brunswick resident Beth Sears, the program’s Middlesex County coordinator. Sears interviewed them at their home to make sure they would make a suitable host family.
Mrs. Butler said that the interview and home inspection set her mind at ease about where she had sent Cory several years ago. She said she remembered wondering what kind of place he would be going to and how she could be sure it was safe. After witnessing how thorough Sears was with her inspection, however, she knew that her child had never been in any danger.
For Mrs. Butler, there is only one drawback to the program: They have to wait another year before Tavares can come back and visit them again.
"I can’t wait until next year," Debra Butler said, adding that she probably will not wait because her family plans to see Tavares whenever they can.
Mr. Butler, who also builds computers, plans on building one for Tavares as a Christmas present, his wife said.
She added that she has invited Tavares to come out and visit any time he wants. All he has to do is take a short bus ride (about 45 minutes to an hour), she said, and she will be at the bus stop waiting for him.