The dream program, windsor union sq, march, april, may, 2016

dreamprogram.org The DREAM Program @DREAMprogram

The Village Mentoring Organization

Windsor/Union Square –DREAM Quarterly Report March – May 2016 Greetings from DREAM! The Windsor/Union Square DREAM program has finished up another wonderful semester of activities. Here is a summary of all the Windsor/Union Square DREAM happenings from the last quarter.

Highlights from the quarter include:  

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In March the mentors left for Spring Break!

Mentors held a Gift Basket Raffle to help fund their spring culminating trip to Canobie Lake Park.

To end the term the mentors coordinated with DREAM dad Scott Walder to make an amazing community dinner. Parents came to enjoy a meal with other families and the mentors.

Mentors held their annual Experience Auction to raise money for culminating. Fellow students were invited to bid on services, items, and experiences provided by the mentors. They raised $1000!

DREAM held its annual Teen Retreat! Teens were invited to participate in a service project at Billings Farms followed by an afternoon of rock climbing and pizza.

This month the mentors started fundraising for High Adventure 2017. So far the group has raised $2,950.

In April Trevor returned to DREAM after moving away.

We are happy to announce that DREAM will have Mona Abdelghani and Lael Daigle as AmeriCorps members this summer. They are both former mentees in the program and will be running summer programming in all three of the Dartmouth DREAM communities.

We are thrilled to have both of them!

All three Dartmouth DREAM programs went to Canobie Lake Park for a fantastic day filled with roller coasters and other thrills!

Mentors had community dinner in the community center at Union Sq. Dinner was cooked by a DREAM family!

For the last DREAM Friday of the Spring Term mentors and mentees gathered to celebrate graduating mentors and one graduating mentee!

Mentors also held a senior night. The seniors got together to talk about the challenges with transitioning away from their mentee and how to have a conversation about relationship closure.

Weekly Programming:  

There was one Friday in the month of March. Mentors and mentees did one-on-one activities.

In April there were four DREAM Fridays.

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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Pairs went to Farm Fresh, an on campus farmers market where Earth Day activities were also taking place.

Mentors and mentees did one-on-one activities and small group activities.

Mentee Sydney and her mentor Dylan got a boomerang lesson from another mentor!

There were three DREAM Fridays in May. Mentors attended Spring Thing with all the kids! Mentees got to throw whipped cream at their mentor’s faces, play fun games, work on craft projects, and eat tons of food and candy!

Mentors invited Professor Tine to run an activity with all the youth and mentors. Tine talked about the growth mindset. Mentees who attended really enjoyed the conversation and learned a lot about the subject.

Special Events for Children and Mentors:  On Saturday, April 2nd, 25 teens between the ages of 13 to 14 from all over Vermont came together for a day of service, rock-climbing, and fun! 13 mentors as well as the DREAM staff and AmeriCorps members joined the teens for the day. The teens were so excited to connect with old friends and to make new ones! The day started at Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, Vermont where teens, mentors, staff and AmeriCorps members participated in service projects. After that, they journeyed to Green Mountain Rock Climbing Center in Quechee, Vermont, where many teens pushed themselves to try rock-climbing for the first time. Others had done it before, and continued to practice their skills.  DREAM is excited that one of our teens received a full scholarship to and will be attending the MedQuest Program this summer. The Medquest Health Careers Exploration Program is a rigorously structured program designed for students who would like to learn more about career opportunities available in the health care field. It is a co-ed, residential, four-day program held on the University of Vermont (UVM) campus. Students will participate in interactive presentations and hands-on workshops. They will travel to hospitals and community health centers, take part in job shadowing experiences, explore and strengthen skills and resources for health career development, increase their comfort in health care and college environments, interact with health care professionals and students, and much more. UVM Health Professions students help staff the program. More info about Medquest: http://www.cvahec.org/programs/high-school-student/medquest/ Capacity Building and Fundraising:  This Spring we raised an additional $125K for Camp construction from two major foundations. Construction on our bathhouse continues, and construction on a large lodge will begin this summer.

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DREAM also launched our summer fundraising drive with a goal of $100,00 to support out summer programs, such as Camp DREAM, community activities and field trips, multi-day sailing trips in Maine, a college road trip, and more!

Camp:  This summer we are welcoming an NCCC crew to help with construction at Camp DREAM. NCCC, or National Civilian Community Corps, is a branch of AmeriCorps. The NCCC crews travel around the country working on projects for a few months at a time. Our crew will arrive in June and will work with us through August.

Alumni Involvement:  Dartmouth DREAMers celebrated graduating mentors this quarter. They received their “Alumni” T shirts and graduation tassels with tiny DREAM charms and celebrated with all the mentees!

Office:  This quarter, DREAM hired 15 Summer AmeriCorps volunteers through Vermont Youth Development Core to run programming in our Vermont Communities.

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, Kylie Edwards Program Empowerment Director, VYT AmeriCorps VISTA kylie@dreamprogram.org, 802.338.8936