For area children, Dartmouth's unofficial sport is being played with an unconventional objective: an introduction to a new side of winter fun.
Tomorrow, DREAM -- a campus mentoring organization -- will hold a Powerade pong tournament sponsored by several campus fraternities and open to all students on campus.
Next week, on Feb. 23, Templeton and Armory Square DREAM mentors will accompany nearly 50 children, ages six to 16, to the Dartmouth Skiwayfor a day of discounted rentals and lift tickets, free lunch and volunteer instructing from the College's Physical Education department and the Ski Patrol, all supported by proceeds from the pong tournament.
The day at the Skiway is one of the culminating experiences that the student mentors plan at the end of every term.
"The purpose of the experience is to bring together kids of all different age groups to interact with each other in an activity that they can look forward to throughout the term. It's also a chance for the two developments, Templeton and Armory Square, to be integrated and allow the kids a chance to interact," current Armory Square co-chair Brad Bate '04 said.
With the help of Dartmouth students, the program now works with 29 children from Armory Square, an apartment complex in Windsor, Vt., in addition to over 50 children from the Templeton housing development. This program -- located in White River Junction -- is currently co-chaired by Rebecca Taxier '03 and Kelly Thomason '05.
Other goals set by Armory Square mentors have ranged from improving the children's reading and writing skills to taking the children on a trip to Disney World.
Bate said he hopes to get the program more involved in improvements within the Armory Square community. He also wants to increase parental involvement in the program's activities.
The Armory Square program is one faction of the larger DREAM (Directing through Recreation, Education, and Mentoring) was started in 1999 by Kathryn Ross, an AmeriCorps member and 1994 Dartmouth graduate. DREAM's mission is to break the cycle of poverty with children living in low-income subsidized housing developments in Vermont.
In the fall of 2001, Mike Foote '01 and Jon Potter '01, two veteran Dartmouth DREAM mentors, formed a non-profit organization to continue DREAM's work. The DREAM Program, Inc. now has a full-time staff of four, a summer intern and central offices in Norwich and Burlington, Vt.
DREAM has also established a program linking the Elm Street Apartments in Winooski to students from the University of Vermont.
Every Friday afternoon, Dartmouth students pick up the children from Armory Square and bring them to campus to spend two hours with their mentors.
Mentors take full advantage of all of Dartmouth's facilities to introduce children to experiences they would not otherwise have.
On a typical Friday afternoon, mentors and their children make jewelry at the Hopkins Center, skate at Occom Pond, play basketball at the gym, draw in the Collis Center, bake cookies in the Fayerweathers cluster or read and play computer games in their rooms.
This term, mentors went to Armory Square to see where the children live, meet their families and sled on a golf nearby golf course. One Friday the children remained on campus for dinner and attended a hockey game at Thompson Arena.
In the long range plan is a "high adventure" experience headed up this year by Nicole Lobkowicz '03. The experience will take about 10 children aged 10 and older and five mentors on a two week-long trip to a place yet to a currently-unknown destination. Last summer, DREAM went to Colorado.
