The DREAM Program, Birchwood, Quarter 4, 2015 Local Program Report

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The Village Mentoring Organization

Birchwood DREAM Quarterly Report June-August 2015 Greetings from DREAM! The Birchwood DREAM Program has finished up another wonderful summer of programming in the community. Kids and mentors have gone back to school and both are looking forward to the start of school year DREAM! Here is a summary of Birchwood DREAM happenings from the past quarter.

Highlights from the quarter include: • Returning summer intern, Julia Dillavou, ran another successful summer of programming with youth in Birchwood.

• A total of eight youth from Birchwood attended Camp DREAM this summer!

• Teens from throughout the state participated in the fifth annual College Road Trip to Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington DC as well as the Time of Wonder Sailing Trip off the coast of Maine!

Summer Activities • Summer DREAM kicked off with a spaghetti dinner in the Birchwood Community Center! Seven kids and several parents showed up and played capture the flag before and after having a delicious spaghetti dinner!

• Julia took four kids to Niquette Bay State Park in Colchester for a nature walk and swimming at the beach. The youth were excited to put rocks on preexisting cairns as well as create their own!

• Youth went on an education field trip to the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center where they learned about Lake Champlain, touched starfish, and put on a puppet show!

• Julia and the kids went to the Sand Bar, a beach near the Champlain Islands Causeway, for some swimming and summer fun. They enjoyed swimming, throwing around a beach ball, and playing in the sand!

• Four kids from Birchwood learned how to sail at the Community Sailing Center in Burlington. They were joined by two girls from our Johnson Community. The youth had fun getting to know each other and spend time out on Lake Champlain!

• Youth spent time in the community throughout the summer participating in

Office: 30 Community Drive, South Burlington, VT | Mail: P.O. Box 361, Winooski, VT 05404 │ (802) 338-8979 | info@dreamprogram.org

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various arts and crafts activities including painting rocks, decorating picture frames, making friendship bracelets, and creating animal masks!

Summer programming ended on July 31st with an ice cream social in the community center!

Special Events for Children and Mentors: • For the fourth year in a row, DREAM staff took several teens to Maine for a week of living on a sailboat and learning the ropes (pun intended) of sailing in the ocean. Captain John Reid once again manned the helm, and we are grateful for his generosity in spearheading these trips and providing the boat and instruction, but most of all opening his heart to DREAMers and exhibiting an extreme degree of patience! Some of the highlights of the trips were giving teens the opportunity to drive and steer the boat, trying new foods prepared in unique ways in the ship’s small galley, using a bathroom on a boat (a very interesting experience to be sure), playing BananaGrams (word game), learning sailing terminology, swimming, exploring and visiting barrier islands, and living five days away from cell phones and other technologies, which is so important for these formative experiences to have their greatest impact. Most of all, each sailing session provides the opportunity for teens to learn and challenge themselves in many ways they never thought possible!

• This quarter eight Vermont teens joined DREAM teens from Boston and Vermont on a College Road Trip adventure to Washington, DC. In addition to college tours, the group also went to the movies, an aquarium, sightseeing, and so much more. A highlight of the trip was a visit to Southern Vermont College, where they were allowed to spend the night in the dorms to better experience college life!

Capacity Building and Fundraising: • This summer our development team raised $53,448 through our summer appeal aimed at supporting our summer programs. This amount exceeded our $50,000 goal and greatly exceeded the amount we’ve raised in the past!

Camp: • This summer we had 72 campers over the course of 5 weeks, hailing from all corners of Vermont as well as 6 kids and 4 adults who made the trek all the way

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from Boston! For 30 of the total campers, it was their first time at Camp DREAM, and we hope they come back next year! Highlights of the activities we did: hiking, swimming, canoeing, gardening, volunteering at a local farm, nutrition education, environmental education activities, discussions about their futures, cooking, eating delicious meals, sleeping en plein air, singing, games, performing in a talent show, and so much more!!!

We are also thankful for the 11 teens who served as Counselors-in-Training this summer! This program gives DREAM teens an opportunity to spend an extra week at camp with elevated responsibilities. CITs lead activities and help with the younger campers, and they earn some money in the process!

Many thanks to our volunteers and Guest Rock Stars! These people took a day or a week off from their busy lives to share their skills and stories at Camp DREAM. They are Paul Espina, Oliver Smith, Erin Knight, and Sophie Halpin.

Office: • This quarter we welcomed three new AmeriCorps members to our Vermont program team. Kelsea Moulton, Julia Dillavou, and Tiffany Trowbridge-Bernard join the team as Program Empowerment Directors (PEDs). All three members come to DREAM with a wealth of experience and DREAM is thrilled to have them on board!

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, Julia Dillavou Program Empowerment Director AmeriCorps*VISTA Julia@dreamprogram.org 802.338.8979