Running a marathon is quite an impressive feat, and one group of Old Rochester Regional High School students have set their sights on completing one.
The Dreamfar team is a new group that started this year in which students train over the course of seven months to run the Cox Providence Marathon on May 1.
The Old Rochester Dreamfar team is a denomination of the larger Dreamfar organization, which has its roots in the Massachusetts town of Newton.
Mrs. Megan Hall, an English teacher at Old Rochester, is responsible for bringing the program to ORR. She explained the program’s humble beginnings, saying Dreamfar is part of a larger organization started in 2008 at Newton South High School by a special education teacher.
“There were a number of students who she worked with who were really thinking about dropping out. They really had no connection to the school,” said Hall. “So she challenged them to run a marathon, and it just started with these five students and this one teacher.”
Hall continued, “They started coming to school because they were meeting with her after school, and their grades improved. They ended up graduating and going on to college and doing wonderful things.”
From there, it spread to Newton North High School and then it grew throughout the Boston area. Hall said this is the first year that it’s down on the South Coast.
Dreamfar is also established at Dartmouth High School and City on a Hill in New Bedford.
Before working at Old Rochester, Hall used to teach in Newton, which is where she discovered the program. When talking to ORR special education teacher Sheilah Sullivan, Hall realized the Dreamfar program would work well in the South Coast and set about to get it established.
Training started in September, with just two laps around the track, which is one half of a mile. From there, the group continued to add to the distances they ran.
“Our longest run so far has been ten miles,” explained Hall. The group runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a cross training day on Wednesday, all after school.
The group meets on Saturdays at Old Rochester for their “long runs,” which can take hours. The other schools in the area with the Dreamfar program also come to ORR for the Saturday practices, which make for a big group of people training for the marathon.
The goal of the group is not to keep a competitive mindset, but rather to grow and finish the marathon.
“The goal isn’t how fast you finish, it’s that you do finish.” explained Senior Meghan Johnson.
The group consists of nine students spanning across all four grades, freshman to senior. On any given day, one can find an average of eight to ten adults running with the students.
There are, of course, many teachers who run and support the students as well, but the Dreamfar team gets additional support from the community members, as Hall explained.
“We even have people that aren’t teachers at our school, and are just members in the community that heard about the program and wanted to be a part of it,” said Hall. “So they come and they’ll meet us, sometimes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for our runs, but they’re always there on Saturdays for the long runs.”
The team held a bake sale on Wednesday, February 10; they raised over $500 during the course of the half-day of school and sold out of all their baked goods. The group raised the money to cover the costs of the races themselves and transportation, Hall explained.
“When we train, the kids participate in a 5K, a 10K, a half-marathon, and the final race is the marathon,” said Hall. “We need to cover the fees for the races, as well as any gear that they need, any gear that we need for the program, and buses, which ended up being our biggest cost.”
The Dreamfar group is planning another fundraiser, which will commence the first week of March.
“We have a drive coming up; we’re doing it with AFS. It’s a Savers drive so that people from the community can come and drop off anything they would like to donate, and Savers will give us money per pound.” explained Hall.
As for the members of the group, they feel that running with the rest of the Dreamfar team enables them to be able to run the daunting marathon.
“Sometimes, running by yourself, you feel sort of like ‘oh yeah, whatever.’ But when you run as a group, everybody cheers each other on, and that’s what makes it fun,” said senior Daniel Carneiro. “You’re at least accomplishing your goal, no matter what your time is.”
Meghan Johnson explained the family-like feel of the runners.
“We’ve really grown close as a team and that makes it really fun,” said Johnson.
The group is always open to new members and, even if running isn’t necessarily your cup of tea, the group still has ways you can contribute, one of which is volunteering at water stops on the long Saturday runs.
For any information, or if you have any questions about the group, feel free to contact Mrs. Hall at meganhall@oldrochester.org.
By Sienna Wurl