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The Village Mentoring Organization
Franklin Square DREAM Quarterly Report January – March 2014 Greetings from DREAM! Though it may not look it, winter is technically over, and it held many fun events for Franklin Square. Mentees and mentors participated in Winter Adventure Camp, mentors welcomed a new program partner, and the program is preparing for a culminating trip to Northern Lights in Burlington. Please read below for highlights of Franklin Square’s winter quarter!
Highlights from the Quarter: •
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Mentors at St. Michael’s College are currently in the process of planning and fundraising for their culminating event at Northern Lights! Franklin Square welcomed Steph Baer, a new program partner and past mentor at the University of Vermont. Steph brings with her lots of experience in planning DREAM Fridays and empowering youth. This winter she invited co-chairs to her home for dinner, where they discussed their goals for the upcoming semester.
Fridays: • • • • • • •
To kick off the semester, mentors went door-to-door in Franklin Square and gave weekly program calendars to all DREAM families. Mentors and mentees made ice cream sundaes on the St. Mike’s campus. Franklin Square watched a movie and ate popcorn and snacks with their mentors. Mentees participated in a super fun chemistry-based magic show led by a professor at St. Michael’s College. Mentors and mentees joined in one-on-one activities on campus. Franklin Square played Family Feud at Saint Michael’s College. Mentors invited youth to Alliot, the dining hall, for food and games.
Special Events for Children and Mentors: • •
Three Franklin Square mentees and three mentors attended Day WAC at Camp DREAM, where they played broomball, cross-country skied, and sledded with other youth from programs across Vermont. Two Franklin Square mentees and four mentors attended Teen WAC at the Bolton Valley Resort, where they received cross-country ski lessons from an AmeriCorps member from the Catamount Trails Association.
Capacity Building and Fundraising: • •
This year DREAM raised $102,368 during its Annual Appeal. Gifts came in all sorts of sizes from DREAMers around the world. With the $20,731 raised during the Alumni Appeal, DREAM raised over $123,000 this quarter. DREAM was recently awarded $15,000 from the Hoehl Foundation and $5,000 from the Redducs Foundation for work at Camp DREAM. These grants were awarded for the construction of a new bathhouse in Fletcher, VT, where Camp DREAM is located, and for working with New American
Office: 30 Community Drive, South Burlington, VT | Mail: P.O. Box 361, Winooski, VT 05404 │ (802) 338-8979 | info@dreamprogram.org
families to send their children on overnight camping trips. A hearty thanks to both foundations for supporting Camp DREAM! We look forward to serving more youth than ever before.
Mentor Training and Workshops: •
In appreciation of National Mentoring Month, 22 mentors (six of them from St. Michael’s College) volunteering with northern programs in Vermont were invited to Boloco for a night of celebration of their important work! Thanks to our partnership with Boloco, DREAM was able to provide free burritos for all. Mentors bonded with staff, ate carrot cake, popped balloons, and competed in a DREAM t-shirt raffle.
Camp: • •
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DREAM staff gathered for a work day in order to prepare Camp DREAM for Winter Adventure Camp. Because of December’s severe winter storms, staff members were busy repairing the stove and removing branches from the trails. Mentees, ages 8-12, made the trek to Camp DREAM for an afternoon of skiing, sledding and broomball on the frozen Metcalf Pond. Temps were cold, but everyone had fun, made friends, and stepped outside of their comfort zones. Out of the 36 mentees who attended, 8 spent the night at Camp DREAM, braving the winter storm. Teens from all over Vermont gathered at Bolton Valley Nordic Center for a day of cross-country skiing. DREAM teamed up with Catamount Trail Association, whose AmeriCorps member Emily Licht instructed mentors and mentees and led some fun (and very difficult) rounds of sharks and minnows. All 27 teens decided to explore Bolton’s Nordic trails, where they worked together to navigate the rough terrain. Because of the long drive to Camp DREAM, staff brought Winter Adventure Camp to the Local Programs in Bennington and Poultney. Mentors and mentees met up at Emerald Lake State Park, where they went sledding and cross-country skied.
Alumni Involvement: • • •
After last fall’s successful phone-a-thons in which mentors called alumni from their respective local programs, DREAM raised $20,731 from 151 donors. We look forward to the New Alumni Welcome this spring, when we will officially invite graduating mentors into the alumni network. DREAM alumni were present at three of DREAM’s four WAC sessions this winter. Three mentor alumni volunteered for the Day and Teen sessions, and one former mentee volunteered during Overnight WAC. Three Local Programs applied for grants from the Alumni Grants Committee this semester. Two grants were for culminating activities, and one was for funding for healthy lifestyle programming for teens.
Office: •
DREAM is excited to announce the hiring of Jen Horan, the new Regional Director of our office in Philadelphia. Jen’s hiring comes as a result of a generous contract with the Philadelphia Housing Authority. We are excited to continue building our programs in Philadelphia!
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DREAM welcomes Andrew Lassiter, longtime DREAMer, to the Board of Directors! Andrew was a staff member and also served as an AmeriCorps member with DREAM. We are excited to have him on Board! Program staff from Boston and Vermont gathered in Portsmouth, NH, for two days of fun bonding activities and summer planning. Program staff also fine-tuned a program assessment tool created to facilitate stronger mentor ownership. All members of the Burlington office gathered for MLK Day, where they made Valentines cards for veterans. Thanks to Essex CHIPS and Operation: Military Kids for organizing the event!
Thank you for your ongoing support of DREAM! If you would like more information feel free to contact me. You can look back at past reports at: http://dreamprogram.org/mentor-program/vermont/local-programreports.
DREAM big, Mark Hengstler Program Empowerment Director VYT AmeriCorps VISTA mark@dreamprogram.org 802.338.8979