Meet Friendly Towns Alumni

We had an incredible weekend at our Annual Friendly Towns Conference celebrating our amazing volunteers. It was an opportunity for volunteer leaders to connect, learn and prepare for summer.

Fresh Air alumni, Emanuel Adjekum, Matthew Diaz and Setonji Agosa joined us and shared their transformative experiences through the Friendly Towns program.

Emanuel Adjekum, Recruitment Manager at the Ford Motor Company

“I am still in close touch with the Hanns family.. I am 40 years old now and I have a 7-year-old son who is the same age as I was when I boarded a Fresh Air bus to upstate New York on my first visit. I like to tell my son about my country adventures.”

“My brother Tommy and his wife and children are my extended family. We are and will always be brothers. Words cannot express the impact The Fresh Air Fund has made on my life.”

Setonji Agosa, Chief Deputy to Managing Director to Bloomberg New Economy

“The Fresh Air experience opened my heart to see the world as an opportunity to build community. Families from different backgrounds and different places have more in common than you think, once you learn to appreciate on another.”

“The choice to see the world in this way is a choice that can make us all stronger and better for it. The ribbon that ties us together is the impact that we can make through understanding and caring.”

Matthew Diaz, Student at Lafayette College

“My Fresh Air experiences opened up my world.. I became a risk taker, I felt brave and comfortable in different environment and with all types of people. My Fresh Air family was an inspiration.. they embraced me as a member of their family.“

Interested in applying to be a volunteer host family?

Learn more about the Friendly Towns program and how you can apply to be a volunteer host family – click here!