Thirteen years later, Dave and Jessica Poyer still see in their mind’s eye the little boy who stepped off the bus in Rochester.
“He was so cute,’’ Dave said, “but he looked scared.’’
“Then we both saw he smiled and our hearts just melted,’’ Jessica said.
That 6-year-old boy had traveled from Brooklyn to where the Poyers lived in Rochester to spend two weeks with them and Gavin, their then 6-month-old son. The boy came as part of the national Fresh Air Fund, a program that began in 1877 to allow children from New York City to spend two weeks in the country.
Jessica, a Deansboro native, grew up with a Fresh Air kid in her home every summer because her mom, Betty Jo Williams, had the family take part in the program. “It was natural for us to do it also,’’ she said.
The Poyers liked their first Fresh Air child so much they had him return for the next eight summers, including when they moved from Rochester to Deansboro. A few years ago, they began talking with him and his mom about having the now-high school student live with them full-time.
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