The Blue Wagon

Alumni Newsletter – June 2012

Inside This Issue Amuse Bouche & Announcements 2 DREAMers Wise Beyond Their Years 3 Congratulations to the Class of 2012 Graduates 4 Welcome Summer Interns! 4 Camp DREAM Summer Appeal 5 DREAM Doppelgängers 6

AMUSE BOUCHE By Adam Goldfarb, Alumni Council President

1. Alumni Support Needed for College Prep ROAD TRIP! Last year, DREAM received a Children’s Trust Fund grant, which allowed us to plan and lead a one-week summer college road trip for teens. It went so well that we are excitedly planning another for early August of this year! We would love to have alumni support, both before and during the trip. Planning is in the very (very!) early stages and the route is still up in the air, so any and all suggestions are appreciated. Please send an e-mail to alicia@dreamprogram.org with colleges we should visit, fun activities on the way, possible places to pitch a tent (backyards, anyone?), or if you would like to meet up with us. Thanks for your support!

2. The Boston DREAM office welcomed its newest staff member to the team last week. Her name is Rachel Lieberman, and she is our new Boston Regional Director. Rachel joins the team having attended college at Colgate with a major in Psychology and a focus on youth development. She later spent a year in the Peace Corps in Kenya, and most recently went to grad school at the University of Michigan, where she helped create a youth development and job skills program for teens at a low-income housing community in Michigan. We’re looking forward to having Rachel on board! She can be reached at rachel@dreamprogram.org.

3. The Dartmouth local programs have recently begun their High Adventure! 9 mentees and 5 mentors will be in

DC for about a week-- they have a ton of amazing opportunities, including bowling at the White House! If you want to follow their adventure, stay tuned on the Facebook page and Twitter - #highadventure2012.

Hello Fellow DREAM Alumnni, I never got to go on High Adventure. I helped to plan the trip for the year in which I was graduating, but was unable to make it, and I remain jealous of those who got to go to the Florida Keys that year-- but I was ecstatic to hear afterward that the exploration, bonding, and growth that the mentees and mentors experienced acted like years of DREAM compressed into a hectic few days. This year there's a High Adventure trip to Washington, D.C., and I've been able to follow the progress of the trip on social networks as the mentors and mentees do amazing things like visit the monuments and BOWL IN THE WHITE HOUSE! So many mentors and friends of DREAM had a hand in making the trip an incredible opportunity for the mentees, and it makes me proud to be reminded of the strength of the Alumni Organization and the commitment we receive from DREAM supporters across the country. Most of all, I'm happy to be able to keep up-to-date with High Adventure through updates from DREAM's social media folks, and I encourage you all to do the same: Follow @DREAMProgram and the Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/the.dream.program) and you can rekindle some of that old DREAM excitement, too! Keep DREAMin'! Adam Goldfarb DREAM Alumni Council President 2012-2014 adam.k.goldfarb@gmail.com

ANNOUNCEMENTS

DREAMers Wise Beyond Their Years – Teens Actively Improving Their Communities

By Mike Loner, Executive Director

Hello all, As some of you may know, in addition to my day-to-day work for DREAM, I am also a member of the Governor's Appointed Children and Family Council on Primary Prevention. We are the State Advisory Group that supports Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) work in Vermont and we help make funding decisions for OJJDP grants and Children's Trust Fund grants. Part of our work is to hear from and provide a voice for the youth of Vermont on various topics such as youth services, the juvenile justice system, and more. Today, a group of teens from the Winooski Underground Teen Center joined us to talk about their perceptions of race, ethnicity and culture in their community and school. I was so excited to see that two of the three teens invited to meet with us were DREAMers. Zahara Mohamed and Edward Lamson, both from Elm Street came to talk about their experiences as young people of color from refugees families growing up in Winooski. I was so proud of how well spoken, thoughtful, and confident they were. Zahara spoke of how she volunteers to act as a support peer for new children and teens of color and help them navigate the school. She mentioned that she has been to several school board meetings, and even though they are boring, it gives her a chance to advocate for changes int he school system to better accommodate youth from all backgrounds and cultures. Edward, who's family are practicing Muslims, spoke about how he and his friends were able to convince the school to allow for a time and space for the Muslim male youth to answer the call to prayer during the school day. More importantly, these teens are changing their community. Zahara shared a story of how a neighbor of hers would not allow her daughter to play with Zahara's younger sister because she is black. Rather than get mad or choose to ignore or escalate the conflict, Zahara made time to meet with her neighbor. She asked her why she felt as she did toward black people and through their conversation was able to change that person's perceptions. Zahara's neighbor now not only allows her daughter to play with Zahara's younger siblings, but their families have had dinners together and she has befriended Zahara and helps her with her homework on occasion. When asked want she wanted to do in the future, Zahara said she wanted to be a doctor. That she wanted to use her skills and talents to help during disasters such as that in Haiti and Katrina. She also mentioned that programs such as DREAM were helping her keep that plan alive and were going to help her make it happen. Edward wants to be a pro basketball player, evidently he is a pretty outstanding shooting guard for his school. And, though I know I should be more humble, my chest filled with pride when both mentioned several times how DREAM has positively supported them and how DREAM mentors have helped to make their communities a supportive place to grow up. More importantly, that DREAM is something that brings their entire community together for a common and positive purpose. We should all be so proud to have such wonderful young people working with us making DREAM what it is! -- Michael C. Loner Executive Director

Congratulations to our phenomenal DREAMers who graduated from high school this year! From Spaulding High School in Barre, VT

• Suzie Silva - Highgate/Green Acres-Norwich University •Dakota Fox - Highgate/Green Acres-Norwich University

From Winooski High School in Winooski, VT

•Claudine Nkurinziza - Elm Street-University of Vermont •Connor Lapan - Elm Street-University of Vermont • Shelby Alger - Elm Street-University of Vermont

From Hartford High School in Hartford, VT

•Travis Near - Northwoods/Hollow Drive-Dartmouth College • Jessye-Adaline French -Northwoods/Hollow Drive-Dartmouth College

From Hartford Area Career Technology Center in Hartford, VT

•Mariah Andrade - Northwoods/Hollow Drive-Dartmouth College

From Burlington High School in Burlington, VT

Congratulations Graduates Class of ‘12 By Mike Ewan, Program Empowerment Director

Each summer, DREAM sets out on a mission to design a summer enrichment program based in each community with which we work. The program is focused on community exploration, recreation and FUN! To fulfill our goals this summer, we invited 10 outstanding individuals to join us as a part of our Summer Community Team. Our team is made up of 5 Americorps VISTA members, who are taking on the role of Summer Community Coordinators and are supporting 5 other team members, who are joining the team as Summer Community Interns. Together, these motivated DREAMers will provide 8 weeks of programming to mentees across the state to help bridge the time their mentors are away and to enrich their summers. Our team just completed a week of planning and a three-day retreat at Camp DREAM. They’re now pumped and ready for the summer (which kicks off June 19th). We have DREAMers working in each neighborhood that hosts a school year program, so if you are in town or would like to volunteer to spend time with some DREAMers this summer, please contact Mike Ewan in the office (mewan@dreamprogram.org) and he will put you in touch with one of the Coordinators. If you see them in one of our DREAM communities this summer, be sure to give them a big DREAM high-five. And finally, thank you in advance to our team! Alicia Jacobs (Franklin St.-UVM '10), Kate Piniewski (Riverside-UVM '12), Molly Laing (Willowbrook-Bennington College '12), Melissa Rixford, Hannah Scott, Victoria Lombard (current Elm St.-UVM), Meagan Frick, Elizabeth Weiner, Anna Ring, Anna Shireman-Grabowski

Welcome to Our New Summer Interns! By Mike Ewan, Program Empowerment Director

Camp DREAM Summer Appeal By Steve Addison, UVM ’08 Elm St.

Dear Fellow Alumni, I visited Camp DREAM early May and was lucky enough to help camp staff lead a work day with volunteers from IBM and Vermont Federal Credit Union. The volunteers arrived ready to go, and set to work improving the land. This year, IBM had a special assignment of helping install an environmental education trail map of the local watershed. Volunteers have touched many different aspects at Camp and leave a framework for camp motivation and pride. They get dirty, wet, covered head to toe in camp spirit. They don’t like it; they LOVE it. But what volunteers do not get to see is the kids’ eyes when they first see the old blue bus (now converted into a kitchen) or the new pole barn with the tiered garden in front. They do not get to experience the excitement that the kids feel when they are first given their bunk assignments. DREAM campers are fortunate to have volunteers that consistently help with construction and educational projects. DREAM campers are also lucky to have the support from folks like you. Camp DREAM’s donor base consists of a diverse group of individuals that all share the same passion: help kids love and discover Camp. Donors are friends of DREAM staff, volunteers, parents, neighbors around Metcalf Pond, first-time camp goers, past DREAM counselors and staff, and the list goes on. This network of support allows the campers to experience a real camp session filled with theater, adventures, swimming, camp outs, songs, and learning many new skills. (Of course, there are also mosquitoes, rain, and everything else I learned to love in Vermont!) Everyone has his or her own way of supporting Camp DREAM. This year, please consider making a donation to the DREAM Summer Appeal. Help share the love of Camp that you may have once experienced with a DREAM mentee from one of our Vermont communities. Your donation – be it $5 or $500 – directly funds the pieces that make Camp possible for DREAM mentees. You can make a donation online here: http://www.dreamprogram.org/support/index.htm. The camper will be smiling all week, I promise you that! Sincerely, Steve Addison Elm St. / UVM ‘08