Fresh Air Fund

My wife and I don’t have any kids.

We have periodically talked about getting involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters, but the same problem keeps popping up its ugly head.

We just can’t afford the time commitment that they demand.

But recently I was contacted by Fresh Air Fund

You can get involved by letting an under privileged kid spend a 2-week summer vacation with you.

That’s it, just 2 weeks.

That really got my attention.  Could just two weeks really make a difference to a kid? That is what got me thinking because Big Brothers Big Sisters says you have to have a more long term commitment with these kids to make an impact.

But then I started thinking about my summer vacations. Those times where I got to do something different for a couple weeks are the once that I really remember.  The first time I really got to venture far from home was a result of an exchange program through my little league football team. The Purple Marauders arranged it so we got to stay at one of the competing team player’s family.

For 2 weeks in the summer.

I got to go to Pittsburgh, PA. May not sound exciting to you now, but as a kid that hadn’t ventured more than about 6 miles from home, it was pretty cool.

I remember that summer well.

I just found out about Fresh Air and I am gone all of July doing my creative thinking workshops, in London, Chicago (with Blackberry), and the Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas.

But we may be a host family in August if we can finish the home remodeling in time.

If not, we plan to sign up for next summer.

Check out this video of Brandon Mendoza

Fresh Air still needs some host families for this summer 2010, so please contact them if you want to change the life of an inner city kid this year.

As a minimum, I am going to work with Fresh Air and see if I can donate copies of my book Da Vinci and the 40 Answers to the host families. I know they could use the tools in the book to really come up with some creative ideas to make the kids summer vacation the best of a lifetime.

Please host a kid this year or donate to the Fresh Air Fund, it sounds like a great cause.