Tents at Occupy Boston weathered the snowstorm. (Courtesy photo)

The tents at Occupy Boston are still up after the snowstorm, confirmed Maddy Desautels, a 2010 Bromfield School graduate who has been participating at the Boston encampment, one of many that sprang up around the country this fall in sympathy with the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City.

"It is a really powerful movement," said Desautels, one of a handful of Harvard residents the Press talked to who visited or participated at the Occupy site at Dewey Square.

In general, Desautels said, the media has not accurately represented the protest, one she characterized as having a very determined purpose. The Middlesex Community College student said she tries to go in as much as possible, though transportation costs are mounting.

Finn Road resident Deborah Levering also supports Occupy Boston.

"The movement stands for the rage and the frustrations that many, many, many Americans feel about everything – about the state of the economy, the state of Congress," Levering said in a phone interview. "As a parent of young adults, I fear for their future. I don't think they will have the same opportunities that we had. It's heartbreaking to think about."

Levering attended two Sunday evening vesper services at Occupy Boston and plans to continue weekly visits, taking in items from the group's "need" list when she goes. So far, she and her husband Jeff have taken plywood, bleach, and a dozen sweaters.

Scot Broadbent, a Bromfield School senior who visited the encampment with his family to hear Noam Chomsky speak two weeks ago, found the gathering more crowded than he expected. He described a festival feel and "an energy about the place."

"Even just walking by, you could see it was meaningful," he told the Press.

Broadbent described the protest as a "gathering of people who care about our country and are willing to do something about it."

Broadbent thinks seeing the group as "just hippies, college kids, jobless" makes it easier to criticize in the news and doesn't show all the people who support the Occupy movement "but can't be there."

He also found it "really cool how people worked together to get things done: food, dishes, laundry."

"[The Occupy movement] is educating and raising awareness. It sends a message," said Broadbent, who hopes to study history and social science next year.

"It is really pure democracy that is powerful to witness," said Levering, describing the group's focus on consensus building in which "everyone has voice."

"It moves us to begin the dialogue….to talk about what is so difficult to talk about," she said.