Author: Pam Cobb

Spring and Snow

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Spring and Snow

Another snow day and we are expecting 12-18 inches (!) yet tomorrow is the official start of spring. Maine weather certainly keeps you on your toes.  It is hard to believe that there about 100 days until our girls arrive at camp; the ice will be gone, the grass will be green, shutters will be off the buildings and all will be ready for our new summer season.

In in hopes of Spring, I share with you one of my favorite poems.  I hope for daffodils peeking through the ground soon.

Alex

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth

 

 

International Women’s Day

Posted on by Pam Cobb

There are people in your life who influence your life, add to your life, perhaps even change the course of your life. I would like to acknowledge three women who were significant in my career. When I became a small business owner of a girls’ summer camp, I was enthusiastic and had a passion for being successful but in both cases it was because of the belief of others in me.

I have a lot to be thankful to my mom, Betty Cobb. There’s the obvious. There’s the whole camp director role model thing. But surprising to most, it was the way she affected people and how they grew from her leadership that inspired me the most. My mom was a tough woman, all about do the right thing and sacrifice and for the better good, etc. She had high morals, was often unyielding and worked very, very hard. She loved her family, her students and her campers and counselors. There was a tiny moment when she loved French cooking, too. I enjoyed seeing her explore that because I didn’t see my mom explore a lot that wasn’t innately part of her. She was an excellent cook and I think French cooking was a reach that gave her a new lease on life. One winter she when I was a girl, she went to France and went to cooking school. I digress. Anyway, my mom inspired me to be a hard working, do it yourself person. I wouldn’t be the camp owner/director I am today without my mom. Here’s a picture of her with my dad when she was a young camp owner and director.

The other two women come in tandem. They were both camp directors. Twenty five years ago they approached me together at a camp conference. Like cheerleaders, they rallied and pepped and told me ecstatically how they were happy I was listening to the calling of my family and becoming a fourth generation Cobb family camp owner and director. At the time, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do it. They made me want to do it. There was such glee and infusion of energy in their combined assault on me in the conference lobby of the Center of New Hampshire in Manchester, that I believed in myself that day. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I can remember the clothes I was wearing, the way the light filled the hall, the sound of the conference dimming out behind them as they chimed in unison and gushed over me in excitement. It was a moment in time that has stood still for me. It’s a framed like a picture in my mind. These two camp women, June Gray (with Pat Smith on left) from Camp Wawenock and Jean McMullan from Alford Lake Camp were catalysts for who I am today.

In honor of International Women’s Day, I’d like to thank these three women in my life for helping me believe in myself and carving out the quarter century of my life that has been the center piece of my adult career. I haven’t even started on the hundreds of young women and children and parents I have met on account of my life in camping. That I’ll have to save for another blog.

Happy International Women’s Day 2013.

Runoia Connections Across the World

Posted on by Pam Cobb

We’ve been talking about Six Degrees of Camp Runoia – that expression came from a Kevin Bacon reference but that’s not important. The gist is every person you know or you meet is only 6 connections away from Camp Runoia. After Alex ran into Emily Levine in the airport last week and I talked with someone who knows the past owner of high end fine bedding and linens business- who is an alumnae of Runoia, we all seem so connected.

Last week one of our alumnae campers’ mom (that’s only one degree of separation, btw!), sent me a message about her new documentary on PBS, MAKERS. Makers is an amazing documentary about women who made the women’s movement in America. It’s even more than that as a bright, powerful, emotional piece production. If you missed it, you can stream it: www.pbs.org/makers.

Today I noticed, in recognition of March being National Women’s Month, they are posting an incredible woman every day. Check it out by clicking here.

What a cool and amazing opportunity to read about one woman every day. I hope to work on a list of camp alumnae and their incredible accomplishments soon. Off the top of my head they include women in major film production, financiers, officers, deans of universities, teachers, attorneys, veterinarians, business owners, social workers, psychiatrists, athletes, doctors, accountants and more. Each girl has the chance to grow up and be whatever she wants to be. Aren’t we lucky women in the 1970s made such an impact on our opportunities.

What Kind of Makers will these Girls Grow up to be?

Dr. Seuss Week and Poetry Month

Posted on by Pam Cobb
Celebrating reading with Dr. Seuss week. Any chance we get at Runoia.

We’re thrilled to let everyone know how much we celebrating reading at Runoia. Each summer we pick a great book or two for our book club. We are taking suggestions for this summer. Can you think of great children’s books you think we should read? With a morning cheer about reading, a word of the day is announced and off we go thinking with new vocabulary.

March is Poetry Month. Celebrate by submitting your poems to Camp Runoia for poetry month and we’ll post your poem online! Get inspired by clicking the Poetry Foundation here.

 

Good Night Games From Camp

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Today there is another snow storm passing by camp. The tall pines are swaying in the strong wind, there’s a chatter of branches that bend and won’t break. With the lake frozen enough to take fishing huts out by snow mobile, it’s hard to believe summer is just a few months away and our overnight sleepaway camp will be in session.

As the trees, land and lake hibernate, we busily prepare ourselves for summer.  Snippets of an email conversation I had with a parent of a nine year old camper today sums it all up as February comes to a close:

“Every night just so you know, we spend time together before bed. Without fail, we begin talking about camp.  I was instructed last night to think up words having to do with camp. I had to say the word and Alex would tell a story or recall some aspect of camp having to do with that word. So I said, ‘bedtime’, and she proceeded to tell me how her counselor would read them stories before turning in and she really liked that. She said it was one of her favorite things -but she says everything was one of her favorite things, So I’m not sure we can pin it down to anything specific!

Later, the parent replied in a separate email: “I was told that tonight I will think up a time of day and she will then tell me what’s happening at camp during that time. Oh, and tomorrow is tee shirt day at school. Can you guess what she’ll be wearing?!

She tells me everything she ever ate for breakfast at camp and every other meal and she tells me all about all the activities she loves and the counselors and the campers. Is it summer yet?”

And, I repeat, is it summer, yet?!?

Why Should Your Child Ride Horses?

Posted on by Pam Cobb

From our Director of Riding at Camp Runoia: Jennifer Dresdow, who discovered this piece about riding by Rick Naband wanted to share as she feels it pertains to our girls riding horses at overnight camp in Maine

Why Should Your Child Ride Horses?

Riding becomes a life long passion for some. This sport impacts a child’s physical, mental and emotional well-being. How fortunate the child who can have the privilege of cantering around a large, living animal!

Horseback riding is physically demanding from raising up the saddle to the withers and then doing the “two-point” in the ring. It improves coordination and balance. Few sports make demands, bilaterally, on the body. Horse back riding is one of the sports that does.

Emotionally, riding can build character. It makes a child be and feel more responsible. They are accountable for this huge 1000 pound breathing creature. They learn empathy for the friend who has just fallen off, or the one who missed the course at the show. They mentor younger kids around the barn and that builds self confidence. They exchange and interact with adults and this only serves to increase their social skills.They are challenged to take risks. They meet new people and travel to new places.

Should they elect to compete at a show, they learn to be a humble winner or a gracious loser. They learn to handle disappointment or celebrate achieving a goal after committing themselves to working very hard all year round.

They are lifting, riding, feeding, falling, eating, cleaning, mucking, traveling, getting up early, organizing themselves… different than soccer, baseball, track or field hockey

So don’t be afraid parents to spend a few bucks on riding lessons for your kids.. chances are you’ll have to spend on an activity anyway… horses can teach your child life skills they will never forget, and that is priceless!!”

Camp and Technology – how Ironic!

Posted on by Pam Cobb

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!

New Skills

Posted on by Pam Cobb

This week I learned something new! Something I thought I would be hopeless at which turned out remarkably well!  I can now build LEGOS!! Yep I know you are all laughing and thinking everyone can do that but not me!  My kids never really had Legos before we just had blocks but this Christmas we got 5 sets of hard core Legos that build a specific project.  Little did I know that one box can contain over 1000 pieces!  Many of you know that while I can organize an entire camp filled with many people pretty easily the thought of having to do a crafty type project usually gives me hives and rarely gets good results, and no I have never made a basket!

I surprised myself on many fronts I was successful (OK let’s ignore the fact that it is designed for 5-12 year olds!) I truly had fun and was even building long after the kids had gone to bed, my kids saw me doing something they knew was hard for me and I honestly cannot wait for the weekend to build some more!

The whole process reminded me of the amazing transformation camp has on our girls, every day they go out of their comfort zone, try new things, amaze themselves with things they never thought they could do and best of all they have FUN!

Find something new and challenging to do to keep yourself busy through the dark winter days it will be summer before we know it.

Alex the Lego master