Strong Women

This has been a summer of strong women. And strong young ladies, too, growing up and into strong Runoia women to be reckoned with.

Strong Runoia women who can cross an ocean and a language barrier to sing absurd songs that wouldn’t make sense even with ten translators.  To make friends with girls whom they may never see again but whose lasting impression are faces made into a camera lens or peculiar slang phrases or dance moves learned that will impress people back home.

Strong Runoia women that can chance a return to their camp home, knowing how much they’ve changed in a year or three years or seven years since being here last and still walk bravely through the Runoia gates, on time for their date with fate.

Strong Runoia women who after seemingly endless days of rain and clouds can be with each other and still manage to cast and reflect enough inner sunshine to light up their whole cabin for the… tenth day straight.

Strong Runoia women that can make magic with the most minimal of props – turning a boa into the base of a winning Miss Tacky Runoia costume, a deck of cards into a full-fledged casino, a small garden gnome into a summer’s worth of amusement.

Strong Runoia women that may complain when the shack pix are always in use and seating on the dining hall benches is snug, but can only truly rest easy when all of their cabin-mates are sleeping in rooms beside them, returned from Fairy Ring, Oak Island, Gulf Hagas and the most strenuous of “out-of-camp trip” locations… The Loft.

Strong Runoia women that can turn any moment into song and re-imagine any song for the perfect moment. Bonus points for performing said song costumed and in front of the entire camp.

Strong Runoia women that can enter the fold and begin to gather Great Pond memories and experiences while sharing their own knowledge of the Great World Outside Runoia (GWOR for short)… Bonus points for making said memories or experiences while costumed and in front of the entire camp.

Strong Runoia women who have seen enough to know all, yet can still accept that a new camp tradition can be begun at any moment because in fact, all of the most special ones we share were once new too.

Strong Runoia women that can carry forth all these very most important traditions while allowing camp to grow and change and flex with the years.  Who knew that each strong women that comes through the gates is a new vessel  for the continuation of those traditions while also being a catalyst for equally essential change and freshness.

This Log is dedicated to all the strong Runoia women and young women of 2009.. and of course, the men that are strong enough to them here.

Carrie Murphey, one of the new ones

Dedication to the 2009 Camp Runoia Log by Carrie Murphey