Founded in 2006, Fresh Air Family has grown to offer signature programs, such as Gross Out Camp to more than 1,600 children in 108 camps in 36 locations in 2025. In addition, nearly $110,000 in financial aid was awarded to children whose families could not afford to send them to camp.
Programs include family outings, summer and holiday camps, school field trips, in-school programs, and fossil hunts, along with hiking, camping, canoeing, birding, star gazing, fossil hunting, orienteering, caving and searching for creatures great and small.
Fresh Air Family brings together a diversity of families — young and not-so-young, married, single, adults and children — along with highly trained experts as we explore the natural world together.
Verna worked as a journalist for 35 years. She started her career on the founding crew at CNN. She reported for TIME and spent 15 years with Reuters. She spent 12 years as the president of the Birmingham chapter of the Alabama Wildflower Society. A wildflower enthusiast, she studies ethnobotany -- the cultural uses of native plants. She has written a book on 75 outdoor places to take your family. She is available for events and speaking engagements.
Verna Gates
Founder & Executive Director
Penny is a retired elementary science teacher from the Hartselle City School System. She currently works with Fresh Air Family coordinating Gross Out events. She is a beekeeper and a Master Gardener. But her favorite accomplishment is being a grandmother of five
rambunctious grandchildren.
Penny Roy
Gross Out Event Coordinator
Paul Freeman
Financial Operations Director
Paul is a freshwater biologist who has worked for
a variety of organizations including the Nature
Conservancy. He was an environmental scientist for the Tennessee Valley Authority. He has served on the board of the Cahaba River Society and other groups.
Christy
Dr. Christy N'Tchougan-Sonou
Charles Rose
North Alabama Hike Leader
Charles has been with Fresh Air Family from its inception. He is an excellent botanist and knows North Alabama like few others.
He is also member of the Muscle Shoals Horns and has played with luminaries ranging from Elvis, John Lennon and Bob Dylan. He tours with Lyle Lovett in the summers.
Dr. Dana Indihar is a Microbiologist and Virologist serving as a professor and researcher at Alabama A&M University, where her lab focuses on bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). She earned her B.S. in Biology from Florida Gulf Coast University and completed her Ph.D. at The University of Alabama at Birmingham by age 25. For the past four years, Dr. Indihar has served as a camp director with Fresh Air Family.
Dr. Dana Indihar
Gross Out Camp Director
Ian Holderman
Counselor, Customer Relations & Web Developer
Ian Holderman is a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Deeply committed to youth education and mentorship, Ian volunteered with the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital for nine years as a summer camp coordinator before relocating to Alabama and working with Fresh Air Family.
Jon has a passion for environmental education. He graduated Athens State University with degree in Elementary Education from Athens State, then later got degrees in Bioinformatics and Ecology as well. He has been teaching Kindergarten for years, but was excited to join Fresh Air Family and Gross Out Camp where he has had the opportunity to combine his passion for education, nature, and technology.
Jon Carter
Gross Out Camp Director, Web Design