FRESH AIR FUND

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 202, 21 May 1920, Page 7

FRESH AIR FUND

-— (To the Editor.) Sir,—lt is with deep and grateful recognition of how much the 'Fresh Air Fund owes to friends and sympathisers in distant. portions of the Empire that I venture to appeal to your readers once again to help me with it. ■Looking backward over the . twentyeight years since the Fresh Air Fund was started. I cannot but rejoice at the progress which the organisation has made during that period. -1 wish I could' add that the years which have passed had demonstrated equally the rapil and successful improvement in the lot of the slum child, but, unhappily, no one can pretend for a moment that this is the case. .It is a curious irony that during the war pevhnps in gome instances—decidedly only a small minority —the' condition of the slum child was a little better than it had evor been; but I gather from the reports received from our agents and helpers that the present state of the children of the very poor in every large town is as bad as m prewar days. In 1918 we provided 1376 motherless children of soldiers aud sailors, ajid children whose fatliera had been killed at the front, with a fortnight's holiday. Jjast season 1587 similar little ones benefited, and this year wo hope, at tho request, and with. the assistance of . the Ministry of Ponsions, to {five a much larger number of children who come under this category a fortnights holiday, in addition to our ordinary wprk. It will readilv be seen that this year the Fresh Air Fund requires more funds than ever, because, in .-addition to the soldiers' orphans, whom wo intend to include in our programme,' the holidays will cost more. .Even then the price asked for happiness is absurdly, small. One pound provides a fortnight's holiday by the sea or in the country for tho most needy and ailing little ones; fifteenpence gives one child o day's outing in tho country; MS defrays tho cost of a complete party of 200 little ones for tho day. with the necessary adult attendants. Donors of this sum can liavo the party known by whatever name they choose. There could be no better tribute to the memory of a doar one who has made the supreme sacrifice than to bring a day of happiness into the drab lives of poor children. May 1 particularly impreEs upon your readers the fact that the whole of the money subscribed is spent upon the children. All the expenses of the management are born by the promoters,' who are Messrs. C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd., the publishing firm which I founded thirty years ago, and the Shaftesbury Society. In the past twenty-eight years the Fresh Air Fund has sent 4,040,547 poor children to the country {or a day's outing, and 53,940 to the sea or country for a fortnight's holiday. It is easy to record in mere hard statistics the work accomplished, but who can place on record or value the Tesults achieved in terms of life, health, and happiness? These things cannot bo estimated. but they csj.i bo imagined. Subscriptions, 'however small, will be thankfully received and acknowledged by Mr. Ernest Kessell, hen. secretary, F.A.F.. 226 Gt. Portland Street, London, W.l, England.—Tours faithfully, ARTHUR PEARSON.