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The DREAM Program @DREAMprogram

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

The Village Mentoring Organization

Riverside DREAM Quarterly Report January 2013 - March 2013 Greetings from DREAM! This winter held a lot of exciting events for Riverside DREAM mentors and youth including Winter Adventure Camp and a mentor retreat. Please read below for more information about events and highlights for Riverside DREAM this quarter. Highlights from the quarter include:

• In honor of National Mentoring Month, Riverside mentors were thanked for all their service with a celebration at the South Burlington DREAM Office. A special thank you goes to Ben and Jerry’s for their support with this event.

• Two Riverside mentors and two teens enjoyed a wintry day of fun at Camp DREAM for this year’s Teen Winter Adventure Camp. Activities included broomball and commando, the DREAM version of Capture the Flag in the woods involving scrolls, megascrolls, and other epic adventure elements.

• Seven Riverside youth attended Winter Adventure Day at Camp DREAM. Winter Adventure Day is an annual DREAM office hosted event for DREAM youth between the ages of 8 and 12. Activities included broomball, sledding, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing.

• Riverside mentors participated in a mentor retreat day on February 10th. The retreat focused on mentor bonding as well as brainstorming activities for the rest of the semester.

• The Riverside program welcomed three new mentors this quarter who will be paired with mentees whose mentors are graduating this year.

• The Riverside DREAM program was awarded a $150 grant by the Alumni Organization to support a Riverside community dinner that will take place in April.

Fridays:

• For the first Friday of the spring semester, mentors and mentees went ice skating at a pond in South Burlington.

• Mentors and mentees enjoyed an afternoon of environmental education and cross-country skiing hosted by the Catamount Trails Association.

• Due to the large snowfall in the Burlington area, DREAM was cancelled on February 8th. • The Riverside program spent February 15th doing activities in the University of Vermont Field

House. Mentors and mentees practiced yoga, competed in an obstacle course, and played soccer.

• Mentees explored the UVM campus in a scavenger hunt. • Mentors headed to the Riverside community for a one-on-one Friday before the mentors left on

spring break. • Riverside DREAMers constructed some impressive contraptions for an egg-drop competition in

the community. • Mentors and mentees went ice-skating at Leddy Park. • Mentors and mentees participated in small group activities. Some of the different activities

included seeing OZ the Great and Powerful, playing basketball, and walking around Church Street.

Special Events for Children and Mentors:

• In honor of National Mentoring Month, Riverside mentors were thanked for all their service with a celebration at the South Burlington DREAM Office. Mentors had the chance to bond with mentors from different programs, meet members of DREAM’s board of directors, and eat ice cream. A special thank you goes to Ben and Jerry’s for their support with this event.

• DREAM partnered with the Catamount Trail Association to put on a day of cross-country skiing and environmental education for Riverside mentees and mentors.

• Some Riverside teens and mentors enjoyed an afternoon of skiing at Killington made possible by a grant from the Outdoor Foundation.

Capacity Building and Fundraising:

• DREAM’s 2012 Annual Appeal officially came to a close at the end of February. This year’s appeal raised more than $100k from 210 donors!

• Mentors launched a bottle-drive in the UVM dorms to raise money to support their culminating experience to Arbor Trek.

• The Riverside DREAM program was awarded a $150 grant by the Alumni Organization to support a Riverside community dinner that will take place in April.

Mentor Training and Workshops:

• Riverside mentors participated in a retreat day on February 10th. The retreat focused on mentor bonding as well as brainstorming activities for the rest of the semester.

• A DREAM staff member led training on child behavior management that focused on specific issues in the Riverside DREAM Program.

Camp:

• DREAM staff members were busy this quarter preparing, collecting forms, and talking to families about Winter Adventure Camp (WAC), which took place over several weekends in February.

• Three Camp Work Days occurred in December and January. DREAM staff and volunteers prepared for WAC by moving hay, setting up tarps, and building a warm space (nicknamed the Zombie Apocalypse Shack) at Camp DREAM.

• The 2013 WAC season was a success! After some last minute changes due to a lack of snow, 29 teens and 15 mentors celebrated Camp DREAM’s history by participating in games and competitions at Teen WAC.

• DREAM staff organized a Winter Adventure Day for youth in the Northern Vermont Local Programs. Activities included sledding, broomball, and cross-country skiing. This year, 43 mentees and 33 mentors attended Winter Adventure Day, which originally had to be postponed due to cold temperatures.

• After Winter Adventure Day, 7 youth and 3 mentors attended Overnight WAC. Highlights included night broomball, roasting apples, and sleeping at the Grange!

• For the Poultney and Willowbrook programs, Winter Adventure Day took place at Emerald Lake State Park in East Dorset, VT, where 6 youth and 4 mentors joined staff members for a day of sledding, broomball, and making fairy houses.

• Staff headed up to Camp on March 26th for a camp workday that focused on cleaning up camp after a busy Winter Adventure Camp season.

Alumni Involvement:

• The 2012 Alumni Appeal wrapped up after setting a record for the number of individual Alumni donors! The Appeal raised over $40k from 273 donors, and five Local Programs reached or exceeded their goals of giving from 25% of alumni.

• The Alumni Organization launched its first annual scholarship opportunity for DREAM mentee alumni who are pursuing college degrees. This year, three former mentees were awarded $1,000 scholarships to help pay for college.

• Alumni members in DC and Philadelphia have organized and participated in fundraising events to support DREAM’s expansion into those cities. So far, they have raised several thousand dollars!

• DREAM Alumni members Paul Espina, Evan Eckstein, Devin Kulick, and Travis Near volunteered at several WAC weekends in February.

• The DREAM Alumni Organization awarded grants to nine different DREAM Local Programs with awards totaling $2715.

Office: • In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., DREAM staff and volunteers participated in several Day of

Service events on January 21st. In Vermont, several staff members and volunteers headed to Camp DREAM to prepare for the WAC weekends ahead. Others prepared a meal at the Ronald McDonald House in Burlington and coordinated volunteers and service projects in Bennington. In Boston, staff members volunteered with one of DREAM’s housing partners, Madison Park Development Corporation and on campus at Northeastern University.

• On January 24th, DREAM’s Executive Director, Mike Loner, and Evaluation Coordinator, Elizabeth Haag presented at the National Mentoring Summit in Washington, D.C. They presented DREAM’s Village Mentoring model and approach to working with college student mentors to mentoring supporters from across the country.

• Lisanne Hegman joined the DREAM staff as a bookkeeper in the South Burlington Office. • DREAM observed National Mentoring Month by holding a mentor appreciation night for mentors

from the Northern Vermont programs. Mentors, staff, and volunteers enjoyed ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s as a thank you for all of the time and hard work they have given to DREAM.

• DREAM’s newest Local Program at Johnson State College held its first DREAM Friday on February 1st. The group participated in activities including building a newspaper fort, playing games, and dancing to music from a jukebox on campus!

• DREAM staff distributed surveys to parents of DREAM youth. More than 65% of parents responded! The surveys are part of DREAM’s commitment to assessing the impact DREAM has on families in the program.

• DREAM was named a Champion in Action by Citizen’s Bank in Boston. The award includes a $35k unrestricted grant, media coverage, and extensive promotional and volunteer support for DREAM's work in the Boston area.

• In March, DREAM’s Vermont Staff joined the Boston staff for the annual spring DREAM retreat. Topics that were discussed included teen pregnancy, results based accountability, and packaging the DREAM model for expansion.

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, Britt Wedenoja Program Empowerment VISTA Britt@dreamprogram.org 802.338.8979