Karla Benion & the Smith family
“Going to Martha’s Vineyard with all the open space and the beach took a little getting used to, but once we got used to it, we loved every minute of it,” said Karla Benion, who was just 6 years old when she first went to her host family. The girl from Manhattan would go on to spend the next ten summers with the Smiths of Martha’s Vineyard, and stay close to them for the next forty years.
After bonding with Karla in that first summer, the Smiths decided to host her, her younger sister, her middle sister, her aunt and her cousin, giving each of them summers in the country until they aged out of The Fresh Air Fund programs. While living with the Smiths, the girls went swimming and berry picking, learned how to garden from Barbara and how to build ships from Roland. Living close to the shore, Karla and her siblings were even able to bait their own lobster pots and take daytrips out to Nantucket.
Olivia Davis, Karla’s mother, still remembers the very first summer that her daughters spent with the Smiths. In particular, Olivia recalled a phone conversation with Barbara in those early weeks, when the host mother realized she didn’t know how to care for Karla or her siblings’ hair. After a few calls between Martha’s Vineyard and Manhattan, the problem was resolved, and became just one of the many cultural lessons exchanged between families. “It all worked out, the kids just loved it, and every year they looked forward to going back,” said Olivia.
Karla’s sister, Jocelyn, remembered how her time spent with Barbara and “Mr. Lee”, as they called Roland, also exposed her to a different kind of family. Growing up in a single parent household, Jocelyn was not familiar with the kind of close relationship she saw between Barbara and Mr. Lee. “It was just a whole cultural exchange that we wouldn’t have a chance to be a part of being city children…and the older you get the more appreciative you are of things you were exposed to at a young age.”
Barbara and Mr. Lee were also exposed to another way of life during their summers with Karla and her relatives, and have enjoyed watching them grow up, start their careers, and even begin their own families. “We were learning things and we heard from them what their life was like,” said Barbara.
The two families still communicate regularly, exchanging gifts every Christmas and seeing each other often. Barbara even came down to Virginia, where Olivia now lives, for her surprise 50th birthday party. This past September, Karla, her siblings, and her mother traveled to Maine to be with the Smiths during their 50th wedding anniversary.