DREAM & GU's First Community Health Fair & Baseball Tournament

Newsletter
March 2015

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DREAM and Georgetown University Launch First Community Health Fair and Baseball Tournament

Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and the McCourt Policy in Practice Student Organization joined forces with DREAM to offer the community of Cabarete its first public health fair. Community workers from the Ministry of Health in Puerto Plata, Grupo Clara, CEPROSH, Health Horizons, and Escojo Mi Futuro came together to show how a community can unite to lead healthier lives.

An Exclusive Night in Santo Domingo... for DREAM

Cigar Aficionado Magazine will present the award for "Top Dominican Cigar" at the JW Marriott this April 16th at 7pm. The very best from the DR will be on hand, with music, food, drink and great conversation. 100% of proceeds from this private event will go towards DREAM's Early Childhood Education Program, so book your limited tickets here.

Our New Culture of Reading

The Anne Feeley Foundation and Scholastic have written the next chapter on how to create a new generation of readers. More than 2,000 preschool and elementary school children participated in our 2nd My Very Own Library (MVOL) Book Fair, donating more than 8,000 books. Dominican children's author Geraldine di Santis and illustrator Kilia Llano provided engaging workshops for the kids and inspiration for our third book fair in May.

Future Social Workers Visit DREAM to Help Strengthen Programming

Social-emotional support is critical to help all students succeed in school. Graduate students from the School of Social Welfare at SUNY-Albany brought their knowledge of social work to an international setting this spring break, accompanying staff on home visits and participating in our newest art therapy program. This emerging partnership will enable additional graduate students to complete an international practicum this summer where they will help design and evaluate intervention programs for DREAM's summer camps.

DREAM Joins the ECOSERVE Clean Water Revolution

Clean water has a profound impact on a community's ability to escape poverty, fight disease and empower itself. We are proud to not only serve mineral rich ECOSERVE water at our DREAM Education Center, but also share the importance of this partnership with our youth and local community through workshops by Greg Cowern and the ECOSERVE team. To learn more, click here.

University of Maryland's
Alternative Spring Break

What did you do for spring break? Our friends from UM Alternative Spring Breaks worked in the community of Barrio Blanco, building bookshelves, donating books, working with our at-risk youth and refurbishing our mobile trash units. These mobile trash cans are very important to remove garbage from the community and transport it to the main road, where it can be disposed of properly instead of in the surrounding lagoon.

Way Beyond the Beach

This partnership started in 2003, when hundreds of thousands of school supplies were being sent down by our Canadian friends at Beyond the Beach. This year was no exception, with the BTB team contributing to the Beyond the Beach Scholarship fund and supporting Katherine Sanchez's final year of university. This has been such an amazing bond and we look forward to educating even more youth together.

DREAMers of the Month

Sussex County Educators

The Sussex County Education Association has been making annual visits and contributions to DREAM for the last nine years and this March was no different. SCEA made another incredible contribution to our classrooms by raising funds and donating thousands of dollars worth of school supplies throughout the years to support our youth. We love our global partners in education!

Donors of the Month

A special thank you to all who gave this month, including:

Michel Zaleski    Banco Popular     Underdog Initiative
Green Tech High Charter School
Combined Federal Campaign
The Thomas Rosato Foundation
Playa Grande Foundation     Beyond the Beach
Kansas State University Foundation
Guido Goldman     Georgetown University
Adventures Cross Country     ECOSERVE     SCEA
Raj More     Abhijit Kodey     Aaron Robbin     SUNY-Albany
Jeffrey Beck     German Paz     Ankit Kumar
John Mulhern     Gabriel Flores     Mike & Carol Blalock

And all who gave/purchased tickets through
the Top Dominican Cigar event.