Our Dream Center project has officially come to an end. On April 12th we had our carnival and it was a huge hit. We all had a blast and the kids did as well. We got an inflatable for the kids as their main attraction and then the Drury Wrestling Team came and helped with all the other games. All of the kids were in awe of the athletes and enjoyed the event just as much as the volunteers did. Throughout the whole process we learned the importance of organization and time management. Without either of those important aspects we would not have been able to have an event like the carnival. The Dream Center was a very fun place for us all the volunteer and get experience at. Incorporating the leadership talks and becoming so close with the kids are memories that will last us all and the Drury community a lifetime.
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Our Dream Center project has made a lot of progress in the last few weeks. We have started our leadership talks program with Drury sports teams coming to the Dream center this month. The athletes talk to the kids about the importance of staying in school, getting good grades, and being apart of a team. So far, we have had the Men's wrestling team, baseball team, and women's volleyball team attend the leadership talks. They also spend time with the kids and have taught them how to play baseball and volleyball. We also plan on the women's basketball team attending next week. Of the teams that have attended, the men's baseball coach actually reached out to us with an interest in making it a regular thing for the baseball team to hang out with the kids in the fall. The men's wrestling coach also expressed interest in attending multiple more times this semester. April 12 is our carnival, and we are working to get all the crafts and games put together, but have been unable progress very far as we have not received the credit card yet. We are also waiting for Dean Julian to get back to us with the contract for the inflatable. At this point, it's mostly just a waiting game because cannot progress further before we get these things.
This month, we have experienced several changes in the dynamic of our project. First, we have had to adjust to the loss of Lily. Thankfully, Katie has been a great addition to our group and has integrated seamlessly into our project and our living environments. Soon after we gained Katie as a team member, we lost another group member. However, we have made the choice to not let this influence us moving forward and are still working hard to bring our project to fruition.
We have continued to go to the Dream Center and volunteer and help out in any way we can. The Dream Center has reworked their program from last year. Last year the program was chaotic when it came to the kids schedule, but this semester things run much more smoothly. There is a clear schedule for each grade group for us to follow. The overall structure of behavioral discipline and dealing with other situations is much clearer now, which has been pretty refreshing. This month we have also started attacking our project more. At the beginning of the month, we sent out an email to coaches to gauge interest in participating in our leadership talks. We were shocked to the amount of positive feedback we received from coaches. Unfortunately, we have struggled to get coaches to send us their availability for the project. We plan to send a finalized email letting them know Friday is the last time to sign up for a date. Right now we have four teams scheduled to do leadership talks at the Dream Center for the month of March and April. We hope to have more, but at least we have an initial base. We have also met as a group to discuss our end of the year party, which is on the calendar for April 12th. We worked to solidify deadlines and ideas and assigned clear positions for each person in our group, working on each of our strengths. We are looking into finding a way to utilize the carnival to solidify some of the leadership themes that the students have learned from the athletes in order to tie both pieces of our project together. We have also reached out to coaches to invite them to the party as wel- to further relationships that the athletes may have made with the students from the leadership talks. The past month has been very productive at the Dream Center. We’ve been able to communicate with Jody more and establish some new ideas such as a field trips with the kids. We have also met with Brandi, one of the lead interns for the program, who gave us a lot of great ideas to implement next semester to put our budget to work, such as leadership talks and mini sports lessons involving Drury athletes and an end of the year carnival. The kids have been more excited to see us the more frequently we volunteer as we are becoming a point of stability in their lives. We have all been able to volunteer in different areas with various age groups, this has allowed us to build unique relationships with the kids. Taegan has continued volunteering for the OTC babysitters club allowing students to work on degrees while having childcare. Lily, Kelsey, Elizabeth, Autumn, and Audrey have been actively involved with the after school program providing a safe and fun environment for children of working parents. Kenzie has continued working with the “circles” kids, this allows parents to work on their GED while their kids are learning as well. Paige recently went on a field trip with a group of the kids to an MSU basketball game. We feel thatthis semester at the dream center has been instrumental to the establishment of our project as we have been able to get to know the kids and learn how to best serve the growing program. We have enjoyed our time at the Dream Center immensely and are excited to fully implement our project next semester!
This month working at The Dream Center was very similar to the last. We prepared snack, stayed during the after school program with the kids, helped with building organization, and participated in a training program. The Dream Center is still a fairly new entity, so they are progressively getting the building put together. We helped move furniture to new rooms this month and helped them prepare to repaint some of the older rooms. We also participated in a training session to better equip us to work with the kids in the after school program. It did not take long for us to realize that we would be greatly tested during our work with the kids in this program, but we are excited to continue to help the Dream Center and nurture the kids in this program. The training was held at Eurasia Coffee on Commercial St. and it was a great opportunity to hit some basic trainings and answer questions that we all had. We began planning and training to roll out new discipline and reward systems. This was a great opportunity to understand the new systems we will be using with the students.
The extent in which our project has unfolded has been limited. We had several ideas in mind for how and the means we wanted to use to impact The Dream Center, but ultimately we wanted to get involved first hand through volunteering before we set in stone exactly what our plan was.
Several members in our group have been volunteering hours at The Dream Center working with young children, middle schoolers, and even working to assist the staff at The Dream Center. We have found that there is no shortage of need for helpers at The Dream Center and thus, they have readily welcomed our efforts. For the members of our group who have worked with the children, it had been a good experience but there have been no shortage of difficulties and obstacles in volunteering with the children there. Several of the children come from broken homes, with little to no parental guidance and as such the environment can at times be hectic and disorganized. However, we have slowly seen that the kids recognize that we are there for them and that ultimately we care about their success. In working with the staff, we have found that it is a huge relief for them and quite a lifted burden. There is always an excess of work to be done, so volunteering there is never a waste. Through what we have seen so far from volunteering at The Dream Center, we want to be able to create a more organized environment for the children. Often times there is nothing scheduled for them to do, but if we are able to come in with a plan of action and fun activities for them to do, then it may help with the chaos that occurs at times. We plan on meeting with Jodi Glazner, director of the Dream Center, soon to discuss what else we can contribute besides our time. Recently, our group talked about the possibility of hosting a fun "carnival" type event at the Dream Center with Drury students, but at this point, it is only an idea and nothing has been materialized. Overall, we are very excited to be working with The Dream Center and can't wait to see the ways that we will be able to come alongside and support their mission, leave our own impact, and grow as individuals. |
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