The Blue Wagon

Alumni Newsletter – January 2013

Inside This Issue Amuse Bouche & Announcements 2 Alumni Appeal – Thank You! 3 Recap: Fall 2012 Culminating Experiences 4 Celebrating Josh Morey, a True DREAMer 5 Chad Butt Receives Mass Mentoring Ignite Award 6 DREAM Dopplegangers 7

AMUSE BOUCHE By Adam Goldfarb, Alumni Council President

1. The DREAM Alumni Organization was happy to

announce & conduct our first annual Alumni Scholarship Program this month. The scholarship is for up to $2,000 and is designed for

a DREAM mentee alumnus who is actively enrolled as a full-time student at an accredited college or university. We’ve received our first round of applicants and will be announcing scholarship winners soon. For more information, check out http://dreamprogram.org/about/announcement/dream-alumni-organization-announces-first-scholarship-opportunity.

2. On January 24th, Mike Loner and Elizabeth Haag represented DREAM in their presentation of the “Village Mentoring Model” at the National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC. The conference is an annual event in its third year and draws mentoring programs, researchers and leaders from government, civic organizations and corporations. The participants evaluate the best program models, examine new research, project future developments in the field and fundamentally ensure that more youth receive quality mentoring. You can view the slideshow of Mike’s great presentation on the website at http://dreamprogram.org/about/village-mentoring.

3. On January 21, as the nation focused in on Washington, D.C. and the numerous inaugural activities, DREAMstaff members participated in Martin Luther King Day of Service projects in Vermont and the Boston area. This “day on” has become a tradition for DREAM staffers and the activities this year were as diverse as ever. While some staff worked outside at Camp DREAM to prepare for Winter Adventure Camps (WAC), others helped prepare a meal at the Ronald McDonald House in Burlington, VT; others still volunteered with one of our housing partners, Madison Park Development Corporation, and on campus at Northeastern University helping with campus-sponsored service events.

Hi DREAMers! Looking back on the response we received for our Annual Alumni Appeal, I am honestly overwhelmed. 267 of you stepped up and provided DREAM the support it needs to continue making a positive difference in the college communities where you first made the connections you're strengthening now. You are fantastic representatives of what it means to be DREAMers: energetic, enthusiastic, and still committed after all these years! It's my pleasure to give a shout-out to a group of core folks on the Alumni Council who contributed mightily to the Appeal's success: Frieda Arenos, Kate Haggerty, Laura Kingston, Sandy Mervak, and Julia Risk. The work you put in to make this appeal happen is superhuman in its scope, and DREAM is so lucky to have you. DREAM's lucky to have all of you, too! Adam Goldfarb Alumni Council Prez adam.k.goldfarb@gmail.com

ANNOUNCEMENTS

DREAM  Staff  help  prepare  a  meal  at  the  Ronald  McDonald  House  in  Burlington,  VT.  

What do you get when you combine -- Over 250 donors and over $40,000??

MORE adventures!!!

MORE grants for Local Programs!!!

MORE college scholarships!!!

MORE program expansion!!!

MORE DREAMs come true!!!

Congratulations to you and congratulations to our 267 DREAM Alumni, their friends, families, and co-workers for making the 2012 Alumni Appeal the most successful

Appeal in all of DREAM history!! We did it!!

A special shout out to the following schools and their team leaders who reached 25% Alumni participation:

Middlebury

Champlain

Bennington

Boston University

Northeastern

Alumni Appeal 2012 – Thank You! By Frieda Arenos, Alumni Appeal Chair

For the Madison Park Village/Northeastern program's Culminating Experience on Friday December 7th, the mentors and mentees hosted a holiday dinner in the community. The youth, with assistance from the mentors, made all of the food and invited their families. The youth who did not assist in making food helped to make the decorations. It was a fun, festive start to the holidays. For the Somerville Housing Authority/Tufts program’s Culminating Experience on Friday December 7th, the youth and mentors watched How To Train Your Dragon in the Tisch Library on Tufts’ campus. The youth enjoyed a delightful dinner that was generously donated by Chipotle and thought the movie was very entertaining. Even now in January the Somerville DREAM mentees speak of the dinner. Jason Zelaya, a DREAM mentee, liked it so much and asked "[w]hen are we going to do it again?" He and the rest of the youth look forward to upcoming DREAM activities in the Spring Semester. For their Culminating Experience on December 8th the Putnam

Gardens/Harvard program spent the afternoon baking and cooking dishes in the kitchens in mentee’s apartments and in the dorms at Harvard in preparation for the group potluck dinner that night in the community. There was a wide variety of dishes including chocolate covered bananas, meatballs, pizza, and potato latkes. Everyone had a blast playing “red light, green light”, celebrating a great fall of DREAM activities, and trying all the different food.

The Orchard Gardens/Boston University program continued to focus their efforts and funds on their purposed High Adventure trip to New York City this summer. This will be the first High Adventure for a Boston area DREAM Program! If you are in the NYC area and want to help the teens plan their trip or can offer resources for them email chad@dreamprogram.org and he will put you in touch with the group.

To view more photos of these great culminating experiences, as well as other highlights from the fall semester, checkout the digital photo albums on the website at: http://dreamprogram.smugmug.com/BostonLocalPrograms.

Recap: Fall 2012 Culminating Experiences By Chad Butt, Boston Programs Director

(Above)  Madison  Park  DREAMers  have  fun  awaiting  their  holiday  meal.  (Below)  A  Putnam  Gardens  mentee  had  his  cake  and  wore  it  too.  And  everyone  enjoyed  a  spirited  game  of  “red  light,  green  light”  (Below  left).  

Josh Morey was a founding mentor of DREAM at Dartmouth College and a friend. Josh recently passed away after a heroic battle with cancer, and was supported every step of the way by his loving wife Christine, the joy of their new daughter, Isobel, and his family and friends. I met Josh in DREAM, as we worked with a small group of other mentors to launch the program. Josh’s mentee was a young boy, 5 or 6 years old, named Mikey. Josh’s love and dedication to Mikey was inspiring for the rest of us. There are many examples of their adventures together – one that stands out in my mind was our first adventure trip to Boston. A screaming bus load of children and Dartmouth students on a wild weekend trip to the city. Josh had his hands full with Mikey on the bus ride down, which became an almost impossible task when the group was let loose on arrival in Boston. Our first stop was the Boston Children’s museum. Mikey ran in, ahead of the group, with Josh close on his heels. Mikey was a virtual tornado in the museum, stopping for half a second to play with something before moving on to the next game or exhibit. But Josh kept pace with him and engaged him every step of the way. At the end of our time at the museum, as we were trying to load children back on the bus, Mikey took off to the museum’s main attraction: a multiple story tall web of nets, ladders and tunnels. Intent on staying in the museum as long as possible and causing as much grief to the mentors, Mikey climbed in and we could see his little body scrambling to the depths of the contraption. Josh looked at me, shrugged with a smile, and then climbed in – of course Mikey, being about four times smaller, could torpedo around this maze of netting and ladders while Josh would get stuck at every turn and a handful of us would watch and “support” him by yelling out words like “oooo,” “ouch” and “faster!” I remember watching this play out – Josh dangling above the ground, shuffling on his stomach through the tunnels and squeezing up ladders as Mikey laughed and built what is sure to be, for him today, a robust and beautiful memory.

Josh ultimately had to back his way out and when he finally popped out a tight exit, Mikey came out and gave him a hug. And they walked to the bus together. I think this story reflects Josh’s approach to life and his dedication to others. Josh set a powerful example of how to meet kids where they are – the organization didn’t need stuffy adults, it needed energetic personalities with childlike imaginations. Josh was truly a DREAMer in the best sense of the word. He cared deeply about others and he was willing to commit himself to important activities. And he knew how to have fun.

Celebrating Josh Morey, a True DREAMer By Mike Foote, Director of Strategy & Growth

Josh  Morey,  in  his  typically  joyful  and  high-­‐spirited  manner,  enjoys  a  laugh  with  college  friends.    

On Wednesday January 16th, Boston Programs Director Chad Butt received Mass Mentoring Partnership's prestigious Ignite Award. The award was presented by current Boston University/Orchard Gardens mentor Brad Agostinelli at Youth Mentoring Day at the Massachusetts State House in front of hundreds of supporters of mentoring, from his peers in the field to state legislators. The award honors a mentoring program staff member who has demonstrated a commitment to motivating and inspiring people to become advocates of mentoring, and has gone above and beyond to advance mentoring in Massachusetts. We can’t think of anyone more deserving than Chad.

For those of you who don’t know him, or may not be as familiar with his DREAM career, Chad has been an active member of the DREAM Program for over 12 years. He began as a mentor at Dartmouth College in 2000 and was a mentor there for four years until graduating in 2004. Following his graduation, Chad joined DREAM as a staff member in Vermont, where he was instrumental in starting many local programs. Since then, he has dedicated his career to expanding DREAM's impact and being a positive force in the lives of young people. Spearheading DREAM’s successful expansion to the Boston area is just one of his accomplishments. As Brad said when introducing him: “I’ve never found anyone that can interact with college students and children of all ages as successfully as Chad can… Chad’s loving patience and hard work makes him able to do this. If ever we get stressed or frustrated about our work with the kids or if something isn’t working, he always encourages us and gives us ideas, and never has ever showed signs of giving up on the kids. They need someone like him in their lives, especially if they lack a good father. He has such a great heart for children and service, and knowing him has definitely enriched my life and ability to serve and work with kids myself, which I continue to do now and when I’m at home.” Congratulations, Chad!

Chad Butt wins Mass Mentoring Partnership Ignite Award By Rachel Lieberman, Boston Regional Director

Orchard  Gardens  mentor  Brad  Agostinelli  awards  Chad  Butt  the  Ignite  Award  at  the  Massachusetts  State  House.