Forty Dartmouth students have joined forces to work with Upper Valley kids and have raised $8,000 on their own to do it.
Michael Foote '01 and Judy Huang '01 started "Directing through Recreation, Education, and Mentoring," or DREAM, at the end of Winter term to work with kids who reside in the Templeton Court housing development in White River Junction, Vermont.
The program started with 15 kids and in six months has grown through word-of-mouth to include 37 kids from Templeton.
DREAM is roughly based on LEAD, another program started by Dartmouth students to mentor Upper Valley children.
According to Foote, the students involved in DREAM meet every Friday afternoon on the Bema and play games and discuss the week's activity. Then DREAM volunteers pick up the kids from Templeton and bring them back to the Bema to meet their Dartmouth partner to do one-on-one activities for an hour.
Afterwards, kids of similar age groups come together for a group activity. Past activities have included learning to fence or fly-fish, going to the pottery studio, or playing group games. At 6 p.m., everyone returns to the Bema and for a closing song or game before the kids go home.
DREAM supports its activities through fundraising and grants and does not receive any monetary funding from the Tucker Foundation.
Foote and Huang said they raised approximately $8,000 last term, through a grant from Nobacco, a Bildner grant through the Rockefeller Center, and a flower sale they conducted during the Spring term exam period. They also collected donations at the Festival D'artmouth. Donations have taken other forms, as well.
"A lot of families of Dartmouth students are giving a lot of money and a lot of stuff. The [Student Assembly] loaned us computers and Tucker is loaning a few more," Foote said.
Foote and Huang also noted that academic departments, particularly the Education Department, have offered support, as has the 2001 Class Council.
This funding has allowed DREAM to conduct extra activities in addition to the weekly Friday event. DREAM sponsored a female retreat at the Dartmouth Skiway cabin in the spring to build confidence in the female DREAM participants.
Another Spring term activity was a trip to Boston in which the kids and their partners went to Quincy Market, the Boston Children's Museum, and the New England Aquarium. One of this term's events is a trip to the Big Apple Circus.
DREAM has also tried to improve the facilities at Templeton. Members got a basketball court donated and others are trying to obtain donated playground equipment. DREAM also conducted a toy and book drive and started a library in a vacant apartment at Templeton. They are also getting computers for a computer resource center.
Besides the physical improvements they have made at Templeton, Foote and Huang stress the importance of relationships to the program.
"One-on-one time is important to build the relationship, but the main stress is that it's a big group and a big community. We work on group dynamics with the kids," Foote said.
"I really hope that they will all hang out with each other at Templeton," Huang said.
Both Foote and Huang say that DREAM has been entirely a group endeavor, which mirrors its focus on improving group dynamics with the participants.
"People are really excited about [DREAM]. Everyone thinks up ideas and someone just rolls with it," Foote said.
Foote and Huang both agree that founding and participating in DREAM has been an extremely worthwhile experience.
"The more open and honest you are, the more [the kids] become attached to you. The relationship is pretty unique," Foote said. "It's fun to be with the kids and show them new experiences. It's fun to watch them grow and be an integral part of that."
"It's really human and tangible and we have learned how to organize people but that's not even the most interesting part," Huang said.
"Hopefully the volunteers will be part of the kids' lives for the whole time they're at Dartmouth," Foote said.
