The DREAM Program, Elm St, Quarter 4, 2014-2015

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The Village Mentoring Organization

Elm Street DREAM Quarterly Report June-August 2015 Greetings from DREAM! The Elm St DREAM Program has finished up a summer full of exciting and enriching programming! Mentors and mentees have returned to school and are looking forward to the start of school year DREAM!

Highlights from the Quarter Include:     

DREAM welcomed Summer AmeriCorps members, Kendra Coleman and Kelsea Moulton and a Summer Community Intern, Laura Burnham. Kendra, Kelsea, and Laura provided fun and educational programming this summer!

Summer Community Interns took an Elm St mentee to Boston as an end of summer trip where they walked the Freedom Trail, explored the city, and toured the TD Garden arena!

Mentees were invited to spend a week at Camp DREAM in Fletcher, VT! A group of Vermont teens went on the fifth annual College Road Trip where they joined teens from Boston and Philadelphia to tour colleges in Washington DC! DREAM teens from across Vermont joined forces with Time of Wonder Sailing to go on exciting 4 day sailing trips off the coast of Maine!

Weekly Activities with Youth:            

Summer DREAM began with an ice cream social in the community for mentees and their families!

Summer Community Interns Kendra, Kelsea and Laura planned themed weeks for Elm Street.

Themes included: science week, physical acitvity week, nutrition week, culture week, and water week.

Science week involved experiments in the community, making ooblik, and a visit to ECHO Physical activity week involved lots of games in the community, a sunset walk at the waterfront, a hike up Mount Philo, a trip to the Burlington causeway and Airport Park, and fun at Oakledge park!

For culture week a group explored the international markets in the North End of Burlington, enjoyed a concert in City Hall park, and visited the Burlington City Arts Center!

Youth went berry picking during nutrition week and baked a pie with what they picked!

During water week a group of youth went sailing on Lake Champlain with the Community Sailing Center in Burlington and mentees had a water balloon fight in the community!

After several bake sales and hard work, youth raised over $250!

Every week a group of youth went to the Summervale event held at the Intervale center where they tried new foods and enjoyed live music!

Youth went on a tour of farms at the Intervale Center and tried fresh fruit and veggies straight from the garden!

Youth attended a Lake Monsters baseball game!

Summer Community Interns put on a carnival in the community as a culminating event.

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

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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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!

Mentor Training and Workshops: 

There was no mentor training or workshops this quarter.

Camp: 

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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 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, Kelsea Moulton Program Empowerment Director VYT AmeriCorps VISTA kelsea@dreamprogram.org 802.338.8979