Alex, Author at Camp Runoia

Service learning at camp

Posted on October 14, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

This summer during their 7 weeks at camp our incredible group of CIT’s managed to fit in more than 20 hours each of community service. They participated in a wide range of activities from seeking out invasive Eurasian milfoil along our camp shoreline to running the kids table at the local Aquafest.

They put to use the skills they gained through their CIT program while also providing much needed support to local organizations that rely on volunteers to operate.

They also increased Camp Runoia’s visibility in our local community and built positive connections between camp and area organizations. They were able to chat with summer visitors about the camp experience and the value camp plays in their lives.

It was a powerful experiential learning experience for the girls and the skills they worked on translated easily to other aspects of their CIT program and to their everyday lives. The lifelong skills and enthusiasm for volunteer service that they built at camp will stay with them as they grow and learn in life.

What are you doing to make a difference in your community?

Posted on September 29, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

The international camper perspective:

You may wonder what drives our international parents to send their girls thousands of miles from home; to a place they have often never been; to have an experience that is not only challenging in itself but must be conducted with English as a second language!

This Runoia parent sums it up beautifully:

“I have been wanting to get in touch with you since the girls came back from their camp experience to let you know what an amazing, rewarding and joyful experience it has been for them! Even V. who had a more difficult start, came back announcing she wanted to repeat next year! And the friends they have made: they are already in contact via mail with some of them, and plan on keeping it that way…

And from my side, I feel they have not only improved their English, but gained self-confidence about their capacities to go beyond their own initial limitations. So once more, thanks for all of that! And indeed I will enroll them for next summer.” (Camp Runoia Mom from Spain)

While improving English skills may be the initial drive it is apparent that the whole camp experience is what the girls take home.

International campers and staff add diversity to our Runoia population and provide opportunities to share cultural exchanges.

In 2014 we had campers and staff representing more than 10 different countries!

It is a win, win for everyone.

Networking

Posted on September 18, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

Yesterday the Director team was lucky enough to spend the afternoon networking at Migis Lodge on the shores of Sebago Lake in Raymond with a hundred or so other camp directors. We embraced the late summer sunshine while enjoying our end of the season Maine Summer Camps organization meeting, lunch and fellowship.

It is always great to hang out with other directors to hear about their summer adventures, trials and successes. The conversation themes are often common ones: how awesome 4^th of July was, homesick campers, how well new site or equipment worked and either reveling or bemoaning the weather! Although the style and affiliations of our camps vary greatly we all share a true passion for engaging children and youth in the camp experience.

It is empowering to spend time with like-minded camp professionals, to get validation for the work that we do and to share our challenges and successes amongst others who truly understand . We learn from each other, are always willing to share our knowledge and ideas and work for the common purpose of getting more children to have access to a summer camp experience.

We hope that as you are networking on the soccer sidelines, at PTO meetings, in the office, at the gym and everywhere else you travel in your daily lives that you will speak to others about the intrinsic value camp has had for your daughter.

As open enrollment begins October 1^st a plug for Runoia is always appreciated too!

Coach!

Posted on September 4, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

In the blink of an eye I have gone from Camp Director to coach. I still have my clipboard but have traded my flip flops for cleats and am now on the field instead of Great Pond. The transition from camp back to home life is often a fairly rapid one as school starts here before Labor Day and there is not much time to switch gears. While saying goodbye to our camp friends is tinged with sadness we are excited to get home and reconnect with our local friends that we have not seen all summer. All of the kids seem to have grown a foot and the forest is as always trying to take over my backyard!

The end of summer in Maine is perfect; gorgeous days and a little chillier at night. There is a hint of fall in the air as red leaves begin to appear on the trees and apples and pumpkins become available at the farm stands.

Many of the summer folk have headed home and the roads are quieter and the lakes less busy. Loons begin to gather for their winter migration and the calls echo longer in the crisp air. Geese fill the air flying south and hang out on the soccer field snacking in the sunshine. Lately a pack of coyotes has been howling just behind the house, sometimes living in the Maine woods can be quite an adventure. There is a feeling of wrapping things up yet also the new beginnings of the school year and changing season.

I am ready for game day, for fun competition and outdoor exercise, for embracing this fall cycle of the camp season. I eagerly anticipate the new enrollments that come in everyday and while I long for the long, busy, people filled days of summer I am content with the shorter, less intense reflective days of fall.

Only 293 days until camp!!

Canoe Trip on Great Pond

Posted on July 31, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

Our younger campers are off for an overnight canoe trip on Great Pond. So nice that they can leave directly from camp and enjoy time in tents, cooking outside and time with their cabin group.

A trip on the Belgrade Lakes for our Runoia campers

Our Runoia campers get out to hike and canoe throughout Maine and enjoy the outdoors.

Runoia paddlers heading out for a canoe overnight

Maine Orchids

Posted on May 15, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

Spring Mystery

One of my first springs in the US I was hanging out with Marsha Cobb at Treetops at Camp Runoia exploring her garden and reveling in how the recently frozen ground was now putting forth many new blooms. Tucked away under some trees she showed me some wild trillium. Not only was it beautiful but also mysterious. It is an elusive and endangered plant that never really grows in the same spot twice. They are technically perennial herbs growing from rhizomes so tend to travel secretly under the soil. I looked for it again the following year only to be disappointed as I was unable to find it.

A couple of years ago by my house I came across some in the woods and dared to transplant a piece (don’t do this at home it is illegal in some states!). The mystery reappeared in my flower bed much to my delight!

Now if only Lady Slippers were not so illusive! I will be waiting for Pam to let me know they have arrived at Camp Runoia in Maine so that I can make my annual visit to see their spring beauty! http://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/about/cypripedium.ht

The mysteries of a Maine spring lead into the majesty of summer! We are counting the days.

Culture and tradition

Posted on April 30, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

What makes a place special and unique?

We just got back from a big trip to the UK visiting both England and Scotland. It was fun to see a place that I know well through the eyes of my kids. They were amazed by simple things like brick houses and fields full of sheep! To them we had entered a magical new world where people do things differently, talk a bit funny and one that seemed like it was a million miles from home. For me there was a renewed comfort in the familiar culture and ways of life.

At camp you don’t need to go thousands of miles to find a place that has its own unique culture. The Runoia bubble is a magical place where we all feel removed from the world outside. It is filled with traditions and places that are only known to those that attend, they are a mystery to outsiders but as comfortable as an old sweater to those inside. We create traditions that have value and meaning to us some that have persisted through generations of campers others that are more recent yet just as treasured. The things that make our camp special and unique may be small and simple or complex and steeped in tradition. They might include: watching the sunset over the lake at campfire, getting to write your name in the boathouse when you graduate, wearing blue and white and often just simply being a Runoia girl and having a place to belong to.

We value our Runoia culture and quickly welcome in newcomers so that they too may feel the magic. We pass down the traditions that we hold dear and help future generations revere our own special place in the world.

Life lessons

Posted on April 17, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

I had an epic parenting fail last weekend – well it seemed so at first but surprisingly it turned into a great learning experience. My eight year old was performing in the last dance competition of the season; I am a pro dance Mom so was kind of casual about the event. I showed up with a half hour to spare only to find out that they were running early and going on in five minutes. My daughter was pretty ready so we slapped on a bit of makeup fixed her hair and that’s when I realized no tap shoes! Ahhhh!! Luckily I am a resourceful camp director type so quickly found a helpful Mom at another studio whose daughters black jazz shoes were almost the right size. Slipped them on and off she went straight on stage. I didn’t freak out or cause a scene (the Mom who showed up late and missed the piece completely did both!) and the show went on. My daughter wasn’t fazed by it at all – her feet did hurt a bit from trying to make the jazz shoes tap but she had fun with her friend’s and we chalked it up to a life experience – you know we will double check the bag every time from now on!

Life lessons show up when you least expect them and provide opportunities to model for our children how to resolve challenges, be gracious and not waste time worrying about things you cannot change. One of the truly great things about camp is that girls get to have real life experiences every minute of the day. Life is generally not always perfect and sometimes you have to just make do with what you have and still make it a great outcome. At camp surrounded by supportive adults and their peer’s girl’s problem solve, create their own solutions and make fun out of pretty much everything! Camp is such a great place to take risks without worrying about failing, to make best friends with people you only met an hour ago and to realize that the show goes on ready or not! It isn’t always perfect but it sure is an awesome lesson in life!

Spring flies

Posted on April 3, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

Black Flies!

Spring in Maine is much revered, how we long for the warmer days where the snow melts and you actually have grass again. It is always somewhat of a surprise as the world has been predominantly white since November so the bright spring green hurts your eyes at first and the colors of the first flowers are vibrant against the brown. It takes a while for the trees to wake up and there are not usually leaves until the middle of May so it really is a practice in patience.

You never quite know when to pack away the boots, snow pants and mittens as an early April snow storm can catch you off guard and send you scurrying back for an extra sweater or a wooly hat. Then just when you are out enjoying the warmth, sunshine and fresh air they descend. You are suddenly surrounded by swarms of tiny, annoying, biting, buzzing insects the Maine black fly! They seem to be a species all of their own only found in the Maine woods with perhaps the Scottish midge as their only living relative! You tolerate them in your desperation to be in the great outdoors, sweeping the driveway, tidying the yard and riding bikes hold too much appeal to be overly bothered by a fly.

Appropriate attire is essential!

Luckily they are gone before June when our staff and campers arrive to camp to be replaced by the less annoying mosquito’s.

I love this recipe for a simple make your own bug repellent I’m going to see if it works on those pesky Maine black flies!

http://www.scratchmommy.com/bye-bye-bugs-especially-mosquitoes/

We love Spring in Maine black flies and all!

Reflections in pink

Posted on October 21, 2013October 18, 2016 by Alex

I had a woman power kind of weekend which generated great reflective food for the Runoia blog thinking about women and girls their connections and their need to be allies in life. First my daughter won the penalty shootout trophy at our coed, rec, soccer program. Great that her skills have progressed not so great that for the second year in a row she received a trophy with a figure of a boy on it. It was empowering to see how outraged the girls were! At 8 and 9 years old they noticed that this was not OK and suggested ways that I their coach could help to fix it for next year. We went online and found other styles of trophy that would suit either gender and sent them along to the head of the program who apologized profusely as it had never even dawned on her. I felt like we had turned a situation around and I modeled for the girls how to listen to their voices, advocate and not be satisfied with gender disparity.

Sunday I joined hundreds of people mostly women to walk to raise funds for breast cancer support services. What a ‘fine Maine day’ by the ocean feeling the strength and power of people making a difference. Women were out in force with their coworkers, girlfriends, daughters, parents and family members to have fun while showing their support and raising money for a great cause. How cool if we get a Runoia team together for next year and for other events to help our girls spread the Runoia love and invest together in the world around them.

How often are our girls empowered by other girls and women around them? Do they have female allies who stand with them and help them be the best that they can be? How are they supported in our communities? Luckily at camp we work intentionally to create an amazing, safe place for girls to grow and challenge themselves in a caring, supportive environment I hope that will support them as they move through the rest of their world. Parents check out this great webinar provided by hardy Girls Healthy Women http://www.hghw.org/node/328

This year we are committed to reinforcing the bonds our campers share and will do what we can to get our girls together to have fun! We hope that our campers, alumnae, families and friends will join us.