Nancy's Blog
The Dream Catchers Family
I often refer to “the Dream Catchers Family” when speaking to people. What exactly does this mean? Who is in “the family”? Dream Catchers is a community unto itself, with ties to people across the geographic region, the nation, and the world. Certainly, the staff members are part of the family. We support each other through the illnesses and loss of parents, children and pets, and celebrate life-changing events such as Ben Conner receiving his PhD from Princeton in Divinity and the upcoming marriage of our own Lauren & Ben.
Our students are part of our family—including former students. This week a former student who is just entering the 6th grade lost her father very suddenly. Our thoughts and prayers are with her. This week we also learned a long-time student has recovered sufficiently from cancer that she doesn’t have to have a bone scan for a whole year! Congratulations Sarah!!!
Our volunteers make up a big part of our family. We were saddened when a wonderful volunteer lost her husband. We are worried about another supporter who when he was suddenly hospitalized. We are excited when our young volunteers are accepted into college and our volunteers who have retired from careers take fabulous trips to places like the Galapagos Islands and Alaska. Our new board chair, Karen Jamison is celebrating the birth of her first grandchild- in Australia! Mike and Sally Derrig welcomed grand- baby Chloe to their family just last Friday.
Our campers come from California (welcome back Emily!) and Wisconsin (Hello Piper!). They spread the word about what it means to work with people with special needs. We hope our local campers will become regular volunteers, and share the values of caring, compassion, and support that are the credo of the Dream Catchers family.
Together, we work to support Dream Catchers as a whole, and each member of our family. We garner financial support by supporting businesses that support us. We advocate for the riders and the horses (watch for the upcoming “adopt a horse program”). We collaborate with other organizations to create a community that welcomes diversity and people with special needs- the Fall Festival at Dream Catchers on September 13th is a partnership between us, Capernaum, and PASHN- parents and advocates for special housing needs.
We are a family.
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