Help Out

What is the Summer Fan Drive?

Every summer, a Central Texas group called Family Eldercare collects box fans and gives them to neighbors who live in hot homes. Families can help by giving a fan, with a grown-up, through the group’s own website.

Goldstrike says“Helping neighbors stay cool is real hero work.”

This one is made for paper: print it, then write, draw and color on it.

Some people in Austin don’t have air conditioning that works, or any at all. Many of them are older neighbors, or neighbors with disabilities. A disability is when part of someone’s body or mind works differently, so some things are harder for them to do.

Family Eldercare is a nonprofit, which is a group that works to help people instead of to make money. Each summer it runs the Summer Fan Drive. A “drive” is when lots of people collect something to give away. In this drive, people give box fans, and Family Eldercare gets them to neighbors who asked for help.

When is it? The fan drive happens in summer. In 2026 it ran from early May to mid-September, so it’s over for this year. Ask a grown-up to check Family Eldercare’s website in the spring to see when next summer’s drive starts.

How families can help

🛒

Pick a fan

With your grown-up, choose a new box fan at the store. Help carry it to the car if it’s not too heavy.

🎨

Make a fan tag

Color a kind tag to tie on the box. Use the one below.

📍

Drop it off

Your grown-up finds the drop-off places and dates on the fan drive’s website.

🤝

Team up

Some families, classes and clubs make a team to collect more fans together. Your grown-up can read how teams work on the group’s site.

Keep fingers and toys away from a fan’s blades.

How does a fan work?

A fan has a small motor (a machine that makes things spin) inside. The motor spins the blades, which are shaped a bit like airplane wings. As they spin, they push air forward, and you feel a breeze.

Here’s a surprise: a fan doesn’t make the air colder. The air coming out of a fan is the same temperature as the air in the room. It just moves. Moving air feels nicer on your skin than still air, the way a breeze feels nice on a summer day.

An air conditioner is different. It actually takes heat out of the air in your house and carries it outside. Find out how on How Air Conditioning Works.

Why it works: A breeze helps the wet on your skin dry faster, and drying takes a little heat with it. That’s why a fan feels cool even though the air isn’t cooler. Try it yourself with the Cool by Evaporation experiment.