The Blue Wagon October 2010

Inside this issue

Note from the President 2

We Need Your Votes! 2

Alumni Appeal 2010 3

Straight from Winooski, VT 4

Message from the Board 4

A Flippin’ Great Time 5-6

DREAMstock Goes to Hogwarts 7

DREAMstock by the Numbers 8

Corny Joke of the Month 8

A beautiful VT wedding doubles as a DREAM alumni reunion*

*Wedding attendees who helped start the Elm St. Program include Aaron Gaines (groom), Mike Foote, Julia Geier,

Matt Griffiths, Casey Wilson, Sam Fitz, Katie Stevenson, Jon Potter, Elizabeth Rosen, Kendra Nardi, Jon Rockwood,

Peter Helseth, Neil Grimaldi, and Keith Musselman (awesome name). The bride is the lovely Christina Edwards.

NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT By AJ LeGaye, Alumni Council President

Apple-picking, school starting, pumpkin-carving, DREAM kicking off, leaves turning, Homecom-

ing, Alumni donating. Yes, my fellow DREAM Alumni, Fall is in full swing! Camp is winding down, but

DREAM Fridays are back. DREAM programs throughout

the Northeast are finding out how much they miss the class

of 2010, but also how much they love recruiting new men-

tors who will spend the next four years immersed in the pro-

gram that we all love. Mentors are reuniting with mentees

who undoubtedly grew up way too fast over the summer,

and mentees are once again continuing their personal growth

because of the tireless efforts of our dedicated mentors.

We all know how special DREAM is, both as an or-

ganization that brings together young, socially-minded, car-

ing individuals and as a program that effects real change

within kids and across communities. DREAM’s self-

sustainability and continued growth (say hello to MIT!) is

impressive, but it’s impossible without the support of Alum-

ni. We, as Alumni, hold the keys to the past and the future of

DREAM: our knowledge, expertise, and memories will for-

ever be part of its foundation and history, but our contribu-

tions as Alumni will allow the organization, OUR DREAM,

to thrive.

Please consider giving in this year’s Alumni Appeal. Let’s give back to the program that has giv-

en, and will continue to give, everyone so much.

DREAM Bigger and Better,

AJ LeGaye

President, 2010-2012

Until October 22, anyone and everyone can log on to http://classyawards.stayclassy.org/classy-awards?

city_id=10 and cast their votes for The DREAM Program, Inc. as the Most Influential Student Group and

the Philanthropic Small

Business of the Year!

Once you've voted, make

sure to invite all your

friends to vote as well!

We're up for two awards so

remember to vote for

DREAM twice.

WE NEED YOUR VOTES! DREAM is a top five finalist for the 2nd Annual CLASSY Awards!

The definition of classy

Imagine you are back in your first year in college, and have just seen a flyer for some program called

“DREAM.” Maybe it wasn’t a flyer – maybe it was a bright pink DREAM t-shirt, or a group of kids and

mentors doing potato sack races on your campus green. Anyhow, imagine you ignored it.

You may have joined other clubs. You may have started reading more books for pleasure, or learned ele-

mentary Mandarin, or taken up Telemark skiing. But ask yourself: would any of these activities really

have taken the place of DREAM in your life?

Would any other activity given you the satisfaction of a

great conversation with your mentee; introduced you to

the amazing group of peers and children; connected you

with your own community and a nearby low-income

community; allowed you to be outright silly in the name

of public service; the way DREAM did?

Would you be who you are today – or know who you

know today – without DREAM?

Each year we have a great opportunity to give back to

DREAM, and last year’s Alumni Appeal shattered our

records. We had an anonymous donor match all new

donation dollars for a total of $7,827 – the largest single

gift ever given in the Alumni Appeal. We had 148 donors give an unprecedented $23,006, with more than

half of those donors giving to DREAM for the first time.

This year, we have a lot of work to do. We need to increase our number of mentor-mentee pairings, and

we need to increase the number of dollars

given by Alumni (excluding last year’s

match) to support those pairings.

We need your help to reach our goal:

250 donors and 20,000 dollars. We can

do it!

Whether you can give a gift of $5 or

$5,000, you will be receiving a call in the

next few weeks from a mentor, a board

member, a staff member or a fellow Al-

um. Please take a moment to speak with

that person. Reflect on your time in

DREAM, and decide what you can give.

We hope that you will give proudly, and

support the program that gives all of us so

much!

ALUMNI APPEAL 2010 Give proudly this year!

Greetings from the DREAM Central Office! November 2011 marks the DREAM Program’s tenth

year as a Vermont non-profit organization. In November of 2001, what began at Dartmouth as an in-

spirational and amazing program between Dartmouth students and the children and families of Templeton

Court became Vermont’s fastest growing community-based mentoring program. Today, DREAM has

programs on eleven college campuses and in thirteen different communities.

To celebrate, we are going to DREAM Big! We are going to help plan and hold at least one event

each month during 2011 to celebrate and share our success. We are currently planning these events and if

you would like to lend a hand, participate in the planning and help make our Ten Year Anniversary a

huge success, let us know by emailing mloner@dreamprogram.org. We will be putting together a Ten

Year planning committee and all are welcome!

Thanks so much for your role in making DREAM successful for all these years.

Dream,

Mike Loner

Executive Director

STRAIGHT FROM WINOOSKI, VT A message from DREAM’s Executive Director

Only in DREAM does this make perfect sense

KEEP ON THE LOOKOUT A message from the Board

Greetings DREAM Alumni! An exciting evaluation is being done by Boston College Graduate

Social Work students in the upcoming month! We hope that their investigation will help us understand

Alumni perspectives of DREAM, the impact DREAM may have had on your lives, and the future direc-

tion of our Alumni Council. Be on the lookout for an email with a survey link. Your feedback is a vital

part of our growth and development as an organization, and as always, is greatly appreciated!

parkour (par-koor) n.

1. the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's

movements to the environment

2. a beloved activity of Orchard Gardens DREAMers, guaranteed to leave onlookers jaw

dropped, and supervising adults with anxiety, sweaty palms, and nervousness

On September 17th, I awoke in South Boston

to start what was certain to be a dreamy Friday. Un-

like many of my friends, I do not own an iPhone or

GPS, so relying solely on hand-drawn maps, address-

es, and a few phone numbers I set off to find Roxbury,

Massachusetts.

I first headed for the bus, which took me to the

T, which then took me to Northeastern Universi-

ty. After a cup of coffee I ventured back out onto the

streets in search of the Boston DREAM office. I even-

tually found my way through twists and turns of the

city’s streets, to a sign which depicted a familiar yel-

low T-shirt. I rang the doorbell and was greeted by

Josh Warren, and later Chad Butt.

After lunch and a tour of the Orchard Gardens

community, the school buses began to pass by the office. Seconds later, the sound of children clamoring

at the window echoed through the office. Louis, an Orchard Gardens’ DREAMer who comes to the of-

fice almost every day after school,

needed help covering a new book.

After fussing with one of those

new fangled stretchy covers, I lent

my skills and created an old

school paper bag cover, which I

then had the honor of decorating.

Now, unlike most Vermont pro-

grams which meet on Fridays,

Orchard Gardens meets on Satur-

day afternoons. Today was spe-

cial, however. You see, the city of

Boston was hosting The Art of

Motion, an international parkour

competition and festival, and one

thing you should know about the

Orchard Gardens program is that

their kids love parkour! At

4:30PM, Josh and I left the

DREAM office accompanied by eleven anxious and excited DREAMers, and by five o’clock, we were at

the event. There we met Kristin Burdge, Dartmouth ’04 and DREAM Board Member.

A FLIPPIN’ GREAT TIME By Caity Patey, Champlain ‘09

Do not try this at home… or anywhere

In no time at all, DREAMers were running up walls and doing back flips, practicing inverted leaps over

stairs, and jumping and flipping off of anything and everything in sight. These kids were awe-

some! Their talent level was incredible and other people at the event, sponsored athletes included, were

very impressed with their skills. I particularly enjoyed when the smallest DREAMer, Louis, said he could

flip and then busted out the most amazing moves (click here to see the video!).

After an amazing Friday, incomparable to any other Friday I’d ever experienced, we headed back

to Orchard Gardens. I got to spend some quality time with the kids, hanging out in the back of the bus

talking about what they

could do to hone their

parkour skills. When the

bus arrived at our stop,

Dudley Station, we began

the walk back to the

DREAM office. I tried one

last time to talk to Laquan,

a child who had been very

quiet all day and had only

offered head nods and

shakes to anything that I

asked. When I asked him if

he had fun, I almost fell

over in surprise as he blurt-

ed out in excitement, "That

was the best day ever! That

was so cool!"

As we parted ways, the kids

thanked us for bringing them to the event. So ended my amazing Boston DREAM Friday. Since graduat-

ing from Champlain College this past fall, I have been going through somewhat of a DREAM withdraw-

al. Although my goal for visiting was to help fill this void, it only reinvigorated my love for DREAM and

made me want to become more connected. Boston has some incredible programs and some incredible

kids. If any alumni are able to spend a Friday or Saturday with these kids, I encourage you to because it

may just be the best DREAM ever.

A FLIPPIN’ GREAT TIME, CONT.

DREAM GOES TO HOGWARTS AKA Harry Potter and the DREAMstock of Awesomeness

By Professor Trelawney (AKA Rachel Kauppila, PED)

Mad Eye Moody gruffly greeted the unsuspecting mentors at the front gate and vaguely gestured to the

parking lot. Luna Lovegood, wearing her Spectrespecs, handed out copies of The DREAMy Profit, and

Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore accompanied the new students to the Great Hall.

Is this a scene from the new Harry Potter film? Nay! Read

on to learn how Hogwarts hosted this year’s annual DREAMstock

mentor retreat!!

“Now, we shall begin the sorting!” exclaimed Harry Potter,

wand aloft. The sombrero-like Sorting Hat was placed on each

student’s head and quickly sorted them into the houses of Recrea-

tion, Education, Adventure and Mentoring. Tom Riddle and Ginny

Weasley handed out lunches and each House ate together, allowing

the young witches and wizards to intermingle and learn about each

other’s programs.

While the Golden Snitch buzzed around and Nearly Head-

less Nick drifted among the trees, mentors played games around

the campfire, raked leaves, and participated in workshops on High

Adventure, Diversity, Behavior Management, Winter Adventure

Camp and more! An extremely tall Ernie Prang led a session on

Age Specific Programming, and Professor Snape discussed Effective Meetings.

For the first time ever, Boston wizards and witches made their way to DREAMstock. The Ver-

mont mentors welcomed them with open arms and they integrated themselves seamlessly, enthusiastically

participating in Captain’s Coming and performing in the Amphitheater Show in the Party Host skit.

Many old-time DREAMers joined in the fun as well! Guest appearances were made by Beatrix

LeStrange (Caity Patey, Birchwood ’10), Cedric Diggory (Phillip Ortego, FrElm ’09), The Daily Prophet

(Kristen Burdge, Windsor ’04) and Professor Lupin – with Voldemort in his turban! (Jen Lazar, former

staff). Other Alumni Muggles present were JD Mascola (Franklin Square ’09), Katie Rogers (Birchwood

’09), Evan Eckelstein (Riverside ’10), Daniel Shearer (former staff) and Mike Foote (founder).

Keep an eye out

for your official invite

to DREAMstock 2011

in next year’s August

issue of The Blue Wag-

on. The DREAM staff

welcomes Alumni at-

tendance at this and oth-

er events as an oppor-

tunity for you to pass on

your knowledge, check

out what DREAMers

are currently up to, and

share your enthusiasm. Thank you so much to all those who came this year.

DREAMSTOCK BY THE NUMBERS DREAMstock by the Numbers:

Mentors attending: 45

Hogwarts Professors attending: 5

Alumni attending: 13 (including three current staff)

Dogs attending: 2

Total Human Attendance: 66

Injuries: 2

Fatalities: 0

Temperature at night: 36 degrees

Games of Quidditch played: 1

Horcruxes found: 20 (disguised as plastic eggs & holding DREAM bumper stickers and 1 small penguin)

Have you heard all the buzz about corduroy

pillows?

No?

They’re making headlines!

-Sandy

Mervak,

Development Director

If you think you have what it

takes to tell the corny joke of the

month, send your submission to

Dylan.j.nelson.09@gmail.com

and maybe see yours in the

November newsletter!

CORNY JOKE OF THE MOCORNY JOKE OF THE MONTHNTH