Salem Dream Center is Making Holiday Dreams Come True

It’s never too early to start thinking about the upcoming holiday season. There are fewer jollier ways to get in on the fun than participating in the Salem Dream Center’s Dream Maker Holiday event.

Since it was founded in 2004, Dream Center Executive Director Craig Oviatt, his wife Renee, and the team at Salem Dream Center have worked tirelessly to help elevate the area’s struggling families. They oversee a variety of programs designed to improve people’s daily lives. They provide meals to families struggling with food insufficiency. They provide homework programs for kids. And they host a variety of events and activities for people in search of safe, productive places to go with their family.

Perhaps the brightest spot on the Center’s social calendar, however, is their Dream Maker Holiday event. Every year, the Salem Dream Center’s Dream Maker Holiday event brings together people from all walks of life for an evening of live music, delicious food, and a healthy dose of charitable fun.

It took a decade for the Dream Maker Holiday Event to mature into its current state. It started as a more traditional toy drive. Oviatt explains that in the mid-oughts, he noticed that the lowest-income children in Salem weren’t flourishing in school. 

“These are the kids that were the ‘have nots,’ so to speak, in a school district with a lot of kids that have everything. These kids don't get Christmas gifts. They don't get birthday gifts, the majority of them. That's a luxury.”

“When we began, this community was identified as a hot spot by the U.S. Census Bureau for food insufficiency, meaning kids didn't know if they would have a meal that day … and they didn't get gifts. And when they would go back [to school after the holidays], they didn't feel like they belonged. I know how important self-esteem is to academic success. So we started Dream Tree.”

Working alongside the West Salem FourSquare Church, Oviatt and the Dream Center collected the names, ages, and wishes of dozens of local children in need of presents. The event soon spread to local businesses, where locals could leave presents under a tree placed at the location. 

“At one point we had 19 trees,” explains Oviatt. “We had a tree at Red Robin, Urban Grange, and Les Schwab. It kept getting bigger and bigger. Then, it became this immense logistical challenge, because you had to go and pick up those trees.” 

In 2016, it was 17-year-old Lupita Ramirez, one of the children the Dream Center had helped uplift, who suggested consolidating the trees into a single lavish event. Local businesses were asked to sponsor the decoration of a series of Christmas trees that would be auctioned at the event.

The Dream Center added its own charitable touch by adorning the trees with tags that identified the name and wish of a child in need. As they enjoyed the festive decorations, event attendees could grab a tag and sponsor a child. And it worked.

“People took the tags, they adopted the kids, they bought the gifts,” says Oviatt. “And it's just cool to see the themes [people use to decorate their trees]. Very few of them are just trees. It's just a fun thing. Then, people come in and they bid, and they bid, and they bid, and it keeps growing and growing. And that all was the brainchild of a 17-year-old girl who was one of the people who was going to receive those gifts. I think that's pretty cool.”

During the pandemic, the Dream Center adopted virtual trees, a way for people to find and sponsor a child online. They have a list on Amazon filled with gifts people can buy for a local child in need. The gifts are delivered directly to the Salem Dream Center, so you don’t even need to worry about wrapping and delivery. Too busy to shop? Not a problem: you can donate cash directly to the Dream Center right here.

It’s not too late to join in the fun. You can purchase tickets to the Dream Makers Holiday event here. The event is semi-formal. The Dream Center suggests you shoot for “festive elegance with a touch of sparkle.”

Be sure to buy your tickets early and mark your calendar for this one-of-a-kind annual event!