I found out tonight that my blog has been nominated for the Top 25 Faith Blogs at Circle of Moms. Click on over and see the other blogs nominated with me. Voting ends June 8 and you can vote once per day.

BooMama wrote a great post a few years back about removing all the buttons and gadgets from her blog that ranked her against other blogs: we’re community, it’s not a competition. I agreed wholeheartedly and removed not only all the ranking gadgets on my blog, but even the FeedBurner subscriber count, which didn’t rank me, but I spent too much time stressing about and over-analyzing (anyone with a FeedBurner feed knows those statistics can be unsettlingly erratic at times).

What I’m saying is: check out the blogs, but vote for your favorite (even if it’s not me). I’m just honored to be included.

The Fresh Air Fund

The Fresh Air Fund is looking for host families in the northeastern U.S. states. Host families are volunteers who open their hearts and homes to children from the inner city.

Here’s some information about the program:

“THE FRESH AIR FUND, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2010, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.”

Impressively enough, more than 65% of these kids are reinvited to stay with their host family, year after year.

Although I was only asked to share with you that The Fresh Air Fund needs host families, there is also a “Donate” link on their site that provides other opportunities—camps and other programs—for these kids.