CANTON -- A group of New York City children arrive in Canton July 10 to spend part of their summer vacations with Fresh Air Fund volunteer host families in Potsdam, Winthrop, Canton, Gouverneur, Parishville, and Madrid.

They will be welcomed at the Canton Village Park by the fund’s St. Lawrence County committee and host families at 4:30 p.m. July 10.

Host families share their summers for up to two weeks with Fresh Air children, ages six to 18, who leave behind the city streets to run barefoot in the grass or see the stars at night. Some youngsters are leaving home for the first time, while others are returning to visit the same host families for consecutive summers.

The Fresh Air Fund is an independent, not-for-profit agency that has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Each summer, over 4,000 children visit volunteer host families in rural, suburban and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada.