The Fresh Air Fund, in response to COVID-19, has created Fresh Air Summer Spaces, fun, free and safe play spaces for New York City children, ages five through 13.

Fresh Air Summer Spaces provides children the chance to enjoy safe, supervised outdoor summer activities where they can laugh, smile, play and make new friends. Fresh Air staff supervise arts and crafts, interactive games and even dance parties! Summer Spaces would not be possible without the support of the local community.

Fresh Air Youth Employment program participants will assist at sites.  The Fund is helping to fill the gap in critical summer youth employment opportunities.   With a long-standing commitment to New York City’s youth,  The Fund will be employing over 200 young people from across the city, ages 18 to 24, to work as counselors and activity specialists in the Summer Spaces program.

All activities follow social distancing guidelines. Fresh Air Summer Spaces are taking place in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan.

In the Bronx, Fresh Air Summer Spaces are located at:

Belmont: Oak Tree Place from Hughes Avenue to Quarry Road

Highbridge: Cromwell Avenue from McClellan Street to Jerome Avenue

For more information about details and how to sign up, please visit: FreshAir.org/Summer-Spaces. Fresh Air Summer Spaces are open Aug. 3 through Aug. 27, although opening dates vary by location. Children can register online for slots on Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.; 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.; and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

A wide range of fun-filled activities include creative arts such as making kaleidoscopes, birdhouses, masks, rhythm drums, collages, mobiles, cloud climbers and pinwheels, along with drills in basketball and Frisbee and dance parties such as freeze dance or charades. Children also play giant board games and line math activities. There will be a “cool down” area for young people who may need a quiet space for themselves.

Summer Spaces is made possible with the generous support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ford Foundation and The JPB Foundation. The program will give children the opportunity to play outdoors safely and for young New Yorkers to gain valuable work experience.

The Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for-profit organization has provided free summer experiences to more than 1.8 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877.  This summer, despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, The Fund will continue to provide safe, fun, engaging and enriching experiences for New York City youth to keep the magic of summer alive through virtual and outdoor programs. Fresh Air children also participate in year-round leadership and educational programs.  For more information, visit FreshAir.org.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.