Statement by the President on the "Share Your Summer" Program for Disadvantaged Children.
SUMMER should be a time of joy for children. But for many city children it is a time of frustration, discomfort, and boredom. For them, the only available playground is a tenement stoop. Their only relief from the heat is obtained from an open hydrant, or on a crowded fire escape.
More fortunate Americans can give these children a chance to enjoy the blessings of summer. By participating in the "Share Your Summer" campaign, they can enrich their own lives, as well as others.
Note: The statement was made public as part of a White House release which announced that the President had called upon all Americans to take part in a campaign to help disadvantaged children enjoy the summer months away from city streets. To improve upon a program which provided summer activities for over 4 million youngsters in 1966, he urged families to share their summers by donating funds for camp scholarships, playgrounds, swimming pools, and a variety of recreational programs, and, wherever possible, by sharing their vacation homes with needy children.
The release further noted that the "Share Your Summer" program was first described by the President in a message to Congress on February 8, 1967, recommending a 12-point program for America's children and youth (see Item 39).
The statement was released at San Antonio, Texas.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the "Share Your Summer" Program for Disadvantaged Children. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237413