Tree DiTommaso ’17
What involvement did/do you have with MOVE? What program did/do you volunteer with and/or lead? What years?
During my freshman year, 2013, I had the privilege of being a participant on the MOVE Alternative Break Trip to Kanab, Utah, to serve at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Our MOVE group soon became infamous for never actually getting to Utah and instead getting stuck in Chicago for 4 days in -40F degree weather. Thanks to the perseverance of the group members and MOVE leadership, our group was able to finish what it started and made it to Best Friends that summer.
After that first MOVE Alternative Break Trip, I was honored to be chosen as a member of the MOVE Alternative Break Trip Committee. During my sophomore year (2014) I led the trip to Hope House in NY to serve alongside young men battling substance use. Junior year (2015) I led the trip to Texas to work amongst the trees of the Big Thicket National Preserve. Senior year (2016-2017) I led two trips, one to Buffalo to work alongside young men and women in inner city schools and the other to Baltimore where we served individuals experiencing homelessness. At the end of my senior year I was blessed to end my MOVE Alternative Break Trip career with once again becoming a participant in the trip to Selma, AL, where we served within the community in multiple ways.
What’s your MOVE story?
Throughout the numerous MOVE Alternative Break Trips in which I was a participant and a leader, I had access to diverse experiences involving so many different types of people and places. The experiences I had while involved in the MOVE Alternative Break Trips challenged my preconceived notions about others, challenged my privilege, widened my mind and worldview, and taught me to be introspective. All of those experiences culminate in one phrase that I continue to carry in my heart every day: “Listen not to respond, but to understand.” That phrase, in essence, is my MOVE story. I learned that we are not placed in these communities to fix things, or offer solutions, or to “help.” Instead, we are there to serve beside those in the community, listening to their stories with no intention to provide an answer filled with sympathy or pity or problem-solving, but instead with the intention to understand. It is only through this understanding that we can continue to serve with those we meet, carrying in our hearts, body, and soul what they have taught us even when we get back from those week-long experiences. If we continue to hold that understanding, then our service does not exist in a vacuum, but instead becomes a part of the change we try to implement in our own lives based on that understanding.
In what ways did/does MOVE impact you?
The experiences I had while on the MOVE Alternative Break Trips gave me the foundation for the life path I walk today. Currently, I am a therapist at a community mental health center and work within their residential program serving those with chronic and severe mental illness. So many of my clients remind me of individuals I have served beside, so many stories I have heard. I did not realize this until sometime later, but the lessons and skills that MOVE gave to me became the backbone of the work I do every day. From recognizing the effects of chronic homelessness, to being aware of systemic differences based on gender, race, or sexual orientation, to being aware of the burden of growing up in a community with generational trauma, my awareness of these social issues came first from my MOVE experiences; it came from listening not to respond, but to understand.
If you are an alumni, what influence does MOVE continue to have on your life today?
As I mentioned above, my choice of profession was directly impacted by my experiences I had on the MOVE Alternative Break Trips, and the MOVE organization as a whole. Especially in our current world climate, MOVE continues to impact my daily living in what may seem are small ways. Am I now serving in a place for one week at a time? No. Am I continuing to take those lessons with me and turn them into action into my daily life? Yes. Not only do I take the lessons with me daily, but that understanding I hold in my heart is now brought into small action steps that I can do within my small bubble of existence. Whether it is providing education on breed discrimination or all the factors behind substance use, it all started from that kernel of understanding I received through the MOVE trips. It is now my responsibility to take that understanding and effect change within my small world. Margaret Mead wisely said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”