dreamprogram.org The DREAM Program @DREAMprogram
The Village Mentoring Organization
Birchwood Manor DREAM Quarterly Report Quarter 2 December 2016 – February 2017 Greetings from DREAM! The Birchwood DREAM program has finished up another wonderful quarter of activities. Here is a summary of all the Birchwood DREAM happenings from the last quarter.
Highlights from the quarter include: •
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For their final event of the Fall Semester, mentors held a holiday party for mentees in the Birchwood community center. Each mentee was given a book picked out by their mentor as well as a letter with notes from all of the mentors! In January, the mentors and mentees were reunited after a long month apart! Deb Kosnar and Alayna Masker continued in their roles as co chairs this semester. For the first time in years, the mentees in the Birchwood DREAM Program are almost entirely matched in one on one pairs with mentors! Four mentees from the Birchwood DREAM Program attended Winter Adventure Camp in February! Mentors formed committees at the beginning of the semester to plan their culminating trip and Beautification Day in the Birchwood community! Mentees and mentors alike have been working hard to plan and fundraise for the events, which will both be taking place in April.
Weekly Programming: • •
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Younger mentees went to Spare Time for an afternoon of bowling while older mentees spent time with their mentors at the cafeteria on Champlain’s campus. Birchwood DREAM held their final DREAM Friday of the Fall Semester on December 9th. Mentors and mentees went to Get Air in Williston, VT, for an afternoon of bouncing on trampolines! For the first Friday of the Spring Semester, mentors and mentees discussed their expectations for each other and went to a pizza fundraiser for the Psychology Club! Mentors and mentees spent one Friday doing one on ones in their matches. Mentors and mentees went to Milton High School to watch one of the mentees play in her Junior Varsity Basketball game! The group played games in the gym and did a scavenger hunt around campus for one of their DREAM Fridays! Teen mentees came to campus to spend time with their mentors at the cafeteria one afternoon while the younger mentees played in the snow and made snow art at the community center.
Office: 30 Community Drive, South Burlington, VT | Mail: P.O. Box 361, Winooski, VT 05404 │ (802) 338-8979 | info@dreamprogram.org
Special Events for Children and Mentors: • In December the teens were invited to our annual fall Teen Retreat! Teens from all over VT got together in Montpelier for a day filled with informational sessions, a hike, bowling, pizza, and of course some bonding time. Capacity Building and Fundraising: • In December staff and AmeriCorps members were working on the annual appeal. Letters were hand written and sent out to donors. Staff and AmeriCorps member worked on writing thank you notes to all donors following the annual appeal. • This quarter we received a $50,000 grant to continue to invest in Camp DREAM and lodge development. • DREAM started working in the College Road Trip auction. Staff and AmeriCorps members are working to get donations for the auction which will be held in April. Camp: • • •
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This year Winter Adventure Camps (WAC) were held in each region to minimize traveling for youth and mentors! For our Southern WAC with Poultney, Bennington, and Rutland we brought our youth to Pico Mountain for a day of downhill skiing. For our Dartmouth College WAC we brought the youth to Dartmouth Skiway for a day of skiing or snowshoeing. The teens did an overnight at Nunnemacher Cabin at the Dartmouth Skiway. For our UVM WAC we did a hike up Mt. Philo since the snow melted. The kids enjoyed a warm day of hiking, sight-seeing, and exploring around the top. For our Northern WAC with Champlain, Johnson, and Saint Michael’s we brought the youth to Skateland. The kids enjoyed pizza and skating with some old friends and some new faces! This year we received a grant from the Davis Foundation for $5000 for gear for WAC. The money was used to purchase snowshoes.
Teens: • •
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Justice Palmer has been accepted to 7 of the 11 colleges and universities she applied to earlier in the year! For MLK Day AmeriCorps members and staff brought a group of teens to Camp DREAM. The teens engaged in small service projects, explored Camp DREAM in the snow, ate delicious food, and bonded. The Vermont Office is busy planning for our annual College Road Trip where we will be taking a group of Vermont teens on a 7 day trip based out of Vermont Technical College in Randolph. DREAM teens will tour colleges, learn about college life, the application process, and other post-secondary opportunities.
Alumni: • The Alumni Organization is starting to open up applications for local programs to apply for funding for special projects. Office: • DREAM is currently recruiting for a Chief Operation Officer. • Staff and AmeriCorps members from VT, Philadelphia, and Boston got together in December for a week to discuss methods for improving programming. 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/mentor-program/vermont/local-program-reports.
DREAM big, Julia Dillavou Program Empowerment Director, VYT AmeriCorps VISTA Julia@dreamprogram.org, 802.338.8979