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The Village Mentoring Organization
Franklin Square DREAM Quarterly Report December 2014 – February 2015 Greetings from DREAM! This winter may have been cold and long, but DREAMers could not be held back from fun, adventuring, and growing!
Highlights from the quarter include: •
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Dozens of mentees from across Vermont attended Winter Adventure Camp, a full day of winter activities at Camp DREAM, including sledding, cross country skiing, and broomball (and of course hot chocolate). Everyone had a blast! Mentors are busy planning a culminating event to Jay Peak Water Park for the end of the school year! This quarter mentees ages 12-14 from across Vermont came together for our annual Teen Identity Retreat. This retreat was an opportunity for mentees to explore their identity through enriching workshops, meet and make new DREAM friends from all over the state, and also have a ton of fun! The program grew this quarter by an additional 8 mentors!
Fridays: • • • •
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Mentors and mentees had a one on one DREAM Friday after the new mentors got matched with mentees, and also another one on one Friday earlier in the quarter. One Friday was spent swimming at the Edge. The event was a favorite for the mentees! Two Fridays this month were spent eating dinner together at the campus dining hall, Alliot. In addition, the kids and mentors enjoyed playing in the gym post-dinner! One Friday this quarter the group planned to go sledding but plans were derailed when a winter storm hit Burlington. Undeterred, the group took a few snow-safe cars to the community and played in the snow with the kids there! Everyone made their own personal pizzas and did crafts on another Friday this quarter!
Special Events for Children and Mentors: •
Mentors and mentees celebrated the end of the semester by attending Middlebury’s holiday celebration “A Very Merry Middlebury.” They went to the town library to make gingerbread houses and then went to the movie theater for lunch in the café and a viewing of Penguins of Madagascar. Everyone had a great time, although they were sad to leave mentors until January.
Capacity Building and Fundraising: • •
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This quarter mentors held a bake sale to raise money for their culminating to Jay Peak. They strategically chose accepted students day for the sale and managed to raise around $150! This quarter we completed our annual fundraising drive to raise money to support programming for DREAM participants. With the support of our many wonderful partners, we were able to raise around $170,000 this year, breaking our record from last year by over $50,000! DREAM’s ‘Growing DREAMs Campaign,’ our Capital Campaign to raise funds for revolutionizing Camp DREAM, continues this quarter. This campaign includes plans for building a bath house
Office: 30 Community Drive, South Burlington, VT | Mail: P.O. Box 361, Winooski, VT 05404│ (802) 338-8979 | info@dreamprogram.org
(currently in progress!), a lodge, an infirmary, and more. At this point we have raised around $76,000, and we expect to raise more in the coming months!
Mentor Training and Workshops: •
Mentors from DREAM and other mentoring programs at Saint Michaels College attended a two hour training at St. Mike’s that included topics ranging from behavior management to poverty literacy to building relationships. McKenzie St. Germain, DREAM mentor and co-chair, helped to lead a session on poverty for the group. The training was very successful and mentors walked away with a lot more tools and resources!
Camp: •
This winter we held our annual Winter Adventure Camps (WAC) with great success! This year we held two WACs: o Day WAC: a day at camp DREAM with mentors and mentees from northern and central Vermont DREAM Programs. Around 50 people from age 8 to adult descended upon Camp DREAM for cross country skiing, sledding, broomball, hot chocolate, fun and bonding! o Southern WAC: For our mentors and mentees from Southern Vermont programs, we held WAC at Emerald Lake State Park. Around 40 people ages 8 through adult attended Southern WAC this year, the highest attendance at this event ever! The group spent the day snowshoeing, cross country skiing, sledding, and of course, drinking hot chocolate. Additionally, since we were forced to cancel our teen WAC this year due to weather concerns, we invited teens to Southern WAC to act as ‘CITs’ or Counselors in Training. We had around 10 teens from across Vermont attend and help run a truly successful WAC!
Alumni Involvement: •
This quarter Julia Dillavou, a Community Intern Alum from last summer, began work as a Program Partner volunteer with the Birchwood/Champlain College program. In this capacity she attends meetings and DREAM Fridays with them, and is supporting their efforts to grow their mentee base and address transportation challenges. Additionally, Julia is volunteering several hours per week on a project reconnecting DREAM with mentees who have graduated from the program. We are hoping to use this reconnection as a means for strengthening our level of support to mentees as they graduate from DREAM.
Office: •
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This quarter DREAM celebrated our CEO, Mike Loner’s ten year anniversary working for DREAM. The DREAM staff, VISTA’s, and board members kidnapped Mike Loner from a board meeting and smuggled him to a beach party themed celebration in the back of a U-haul truck, complete with sand, lei’s, and beach balls! DREAM recognized Mike Loner with the honor of having our new bath house at Camp DREAM named for him. Henceforth it will bear a plaque reading “Loner’s Loo!” We were excited to welcome a new staff member, Sarah Attridge, to the Vermont DREAM team in the role of Development Associate. In this role Sarah will be working closely with our National Development Director to cultivate Vermont development and fundraising. In addition to bringing
skills from former development position, Sarah also brings experience as a former mentor at Elm Street DREAM! Thank you for your ongoing support of DREAM. If you would like additional or more detailed information, please contact me by email or by phone. You can always look back at past reports or other programs’ reports by going to: http://dreamprogram.org/mentoring/vermont/local-program-reports.
DREAM big, Adam Hurwitz Program Empowerment Director VYT AmeriCorps VISTA adam@dreamprogram.org 802.338.8979