Let’s face it. We are plugged in. We search for directions online, we scan barcodes and QR codes to get more information about a product or a place, we can answer our phones or make a call nearly anywhere on earth and we update our websites to be current and fresh and available. Words like SEO, organic searches, blogging and new content are part of our everyday language. We “Google” things, forward links and share video images and phone pictures by text. We compare prices as we are shopping. And, Camp Runoia has its own App!
At camp, during our summer season, we are virtually unplugged. Can you imagine we have our Camp Runoia App and yet we still go to this timeless summer place where we walk, run, play, swim, hike, bike, ride, zip, sing, shoot, act, laugh, paddle, sail, weave, kick, hit, return, knit, build, drop, light, dive, paint, whittle, whistle, shout, climb, leap, dance all without a single touch screen or phone app!!
There’s something beautiful about simple. We still do simple at camp. One of our campers recently wrote to say how much she is looking forward to getting back to camp this summer where she can just be with her friends rather than “Facebook” or “post” them. The women from 1907 would hardly believe how technology is part of our every day lives. When they came to camp, it was a three day horse back ride into Augusta to get supplies and come back. Camp lasted for 11-12 weeks and girls arrived by train in the Belgrade Depot where the horse and buggy picked them up and loaded their camp trunks and off they went into the wilderness for 3 months!
Our girls still have a chance to unplug and enjoy the call of the loon, the sound of the wind in the pines, the waves lapping against the shoreline. They spend earnest time together in laughter and in tears, loving each other and making up after real live arguing. Talking behind someone’s back comes out in the open to be dealt with by all parties. Exclusive behavior gets morphed into inclusive acceptance of differences. Camp is the real thing – real people being together learning unplugged life long skills and making a lifetime of unplugged memories.
Join the irony – go to iTunes and upload the Camp Runoia and have some fun peeking in on our real camp as it happens in 2013!