THE FRESH AIR FUND

Southland Times, Issue 17732, 9 August 1917, Page 5

THE FRESH AIR FUND

A STRONG APPEAL. During the 25 years of its existence Sir Arthur Pearson’s British Fresh Air F'und has given 3,700,623 poor children a day in the country, and since the inception of the fortnightly holidays in 1908, 39,008 of the most weakly and ailing little ones have had a glorious fortnight’s change by the sea or in the country. Poverty is the only pass- , port to a Fresh Air Fund holiday. All the money received in subscriptions is spent on the children; the working and management expenses being borne by the promoters. The Fresh Air F'und is. one of the sweetest and kindliest charities ever conceived. It takes the pale little waifs of the crowded alleys of the large towns and cities of the United Kingdom and transports them to incredible happiness. Little children whose horizon has always been a row of forlorn chimney pots are suddenly made aware of the glory of open spaces; of the wind rustling through big trees; of illimitable meadows where flowers grow that may be picked; of sweet running water where perhaps fish may be seen. No subscription is too small. 1/- gives a London slum waif a day’s outing in the country or at the seaside. 12/6 provides a fortnight’s holiday for a pallid little slum dweller who has never seen a field of grass. We have received the following amounts: Amount already acknowledged •. .. £34 9 6 F. 0 .5 0 J. A 0 10 0 W. Robinson 0 5 0 Horseman 0 2 6 Mrs Blakie 0 10 0 G. &C. S 0 5 0 THE LITTLE CRIPPLE. (New York Life.) His home is in a dingy tenement, He has no playground but the city street, And he is lame, he cannot scamper fleet Like other children, nor find lively vent In romping games for boyish spirits pent In stuffy squalor. Yet, their freer feet I He does not envy, since a promise sweet From some kind stranger lends his heart content: Next summer he shall smell the, newmown hay. Make friends with chicks and dogs and birds and bees, And gather wild flowers down a woodland way; And his starved soul shall store up memories To comfort him of loneliness and pain, Until his “Fresh Air” fortnight comes again. —Charlotte Becker.