Ice cream dreams
Dream Support Network delivers frozen treats while helping kids look to the future
Every order at the Ice Cream for a Dream truck begins with a question: “What is your dream?”
For the last nine years, the blue truck, painted with pink popsicles and ice cream sandwiches, has traveled around Connecticut, providing free ice cream to those who offer their biggest life aspiration.
Following the truck’s nine-year anniversary last Wednesday, the city of Hartford declared Aug. 25 “Ice Cream for a Dream Day.” As a part of the Dream Support Network, the organization not only delivers frozen goodies but also provides youth workshops that consult students on their
goals and teaches the skills to achieve them.
“When I think back to my
childhood, I didn’t really have people asking what my dreams were, and I never had conversations with adults or my friends about it,” said Matthew Rivera, the executive director at The Dream Support Network. “But one of the most beautiful things I’ve noticed about this work is that when I’m out here asking, especially our youth, what their dreams are, as they walk away, they start to have a conversation about what their dreams are together, and they’re like, ‘Hey I didn’t know you wanted to be a doctor!’ ”
By initiating those conversations, Rivera says it changes the framework of how young people think.
“Now you start to view your friend in a different light. You’re
able to hold them accountable in a different light because you understand what their dreams are and what they’re working toward,” he said. “The problem with a lot of youth is they don’t know what their future holds, so they don’t understand the value that their education has in getting them where they want to be. We sort of perpetuate this notion where if you just follow and navigate systems, it eventually allows you to generate some sort of success. But, especially for our Black and Brown people, life doesn’t work that way, so just to be able to provide them with some thoughts and some ideas that they can think, build and run with, it’s amazing.”
Rivera, a New York native and the oldest of six siblings, grew up in the Bronx. In sixth grade, he said he made the decision that he was going to be the first in his family to graduate from college. By his junior year in high school, he was closer to making his dream a reality when an advisor from Trinity College invited him to Hartford to visit. It was the first time he stepped foot on a college campus.
From there, he graduated high school and embarked on his next journey at Trinity College. A part of the Men of Color Alliance at Trinity, Rivera’s first goal was to establish a better relationship with his new community. It began with volunteering at soup kitchens, before being introduced to people like AJ Johnson, a community activist and pastor, Connecticut Rep. Brandon Mcgee and perhaps most importantly, Abdul-rahmaan I. Muhammad, the founder of The Dream Support Network.
“I told him I wanted to go to the 100 Men of Color Black Tie Gala hosted by June Archer, but the reason why I wasn’t going was because I didn’t have a suit. ... He made a phone call and said, ‘Come on. Let’s go.’ And we went to this older gentleman’s apartment in the south end of Hartford and he took my measurements and said, ‘Give me an hour.’ And I walked out with a suit,” Rivera said. “What struck me was that was the first time I ever met Abdul.”
The two continued to meet up. That is when Rivera was offered an unpaid internship on the truck, which he was hesitant about.
“He said, ‘When you do good work, money starts to fall out of the sky,’ ” Rivera said with a laugh. “I was like, ‘OK, whatever that means.’ ”
After the first few rides, he was hooked.
“I’ve had so many conversations with people that were either speaking to me or I was speaking to them about their situation, and I think one of things that people don’t realize is that the ice cream is just an incentive that grants me the platform to have a conversation with you,” Rivera said.
Muhammad began to let Rivera take the truck out by himself, growing the business from 11,500 ice creams given away one summer to 21,500 the next. Even in the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to exchange nearly 9,000 ice cream sandwiches and popsicles safely,
as with the workshops the organization hosts, began planning and conducting them remotely as well.
Throughout the last few years, River said he’s probably heard upward of 40,000 dreams. His favorite one that stood out recently was a kid who wants to own a zoo one day.
“[But] I think it’s such a beautiful thing, especially with adults . ... [Sometimes] they sit there and struggle with that question because we push out this notion that when you have kids or have a job or when you reach a certain age, you lose your ability to dream,” Rivera said. “But I believe whether you’re 85 or 12, as long as you have breath in your body you have an ability and opportunity to dream.”
The 22-year-old, who graduated from Trinity in 2020, now works full time for The Dream Support Network. Even though he’s living a dream he never envisioned, he still has one more.
“My biggest dream is to give a sold-out speech at Madison Square Garden,” Rivera said. “I love the art of storytelling. I love the art of public speaking, and of course, I want to be able to do it in my hometown at The Garden.”