Category: Camp

A selfie to build Runoia community

Posted on by Alex

As people that know me well will tell you, that while I may appear to be a confident, up front, extrovert, I tend to prefer the shadows and the back of the photo shot. This new world that we are living in has required a lot more up front camera work than I ever could have imagined and has really required getting out of my comfort zone practically and emotionally.

I have needed coaching from my younger professional friends about the art of taking a good selfie and how to show up in a zoom meeting so that you don’t look like you are staring out of the window or looking at your knees. I found things on my laptop that I never knew that it could do and have stretched my technology skill set to the max.  Who knew that something as simple as a small sticker by your camera would encourage you to actually look at it not at the screen? and definitely don’t read the comments while you are on live they are so exciting and distracting.

My greatest realization in the past couple of weeks is that it is better to show up virtually than not at all.   It is really not about the quality of the photo, what you are wearing, if the singing is pitch perfect or how messy the house looks, it’s about connection. Connection with the people who physically miss our faces in their everyday lives. Connection with those far away who are holding onto the familiar to get them through today’s challenges. Connection with our groups and communities for whom we are a grounding anchor. Connection with the people who we may not even know that we have an impact on as we move through our lives.

I don’t think I will ever get to love taking ‘selfies’ or going ‘live’ but I’ll keep trying to get better at it because the connections have great value to me too. We are developing new and continuing to build on existing relationships in ways that we never knew were really possible. It’s amazing!

Our Runoia community is strong and stretches generations and endless miles.

Keep reaching out and connecting anyway that you can.

Happiness and Smiles

Posted on by Pam Cobb

From my friend Joy, posted on Runoia’s blog with Joy’s permission:

COVID-19 and Happiness- A Strategy For Everyone

Mother Teresa said “peace begins with a smile.” Researchers report the facial muscles used in creating the simple act of smiling triggers special brain neurotransmitters that release endorphins and immune boosting T-cells. In fact, the simple act of smiling lowers our stress hormone called cortisol, and produces hormones that stabilize our blood pressure, improve our respiration, reduce our pain level, relaxes our muscles, speeds up our healing, lowers our chance of depression, and creates a change to stabilize our entire mood.
Did you know that it takes 62 muscles to frown and only 26 muscles to smile… so then why don’t smile more often?
Resilient people know the importance of taking positive actions to enhance their mental status. Would you like to practice a simple goal and watch its powerful effects during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Goal: Commit to 5 smiles a day.

Keep a record of incidents during the day that make you smile. Interestingly, you will notice that the sheer fact of changing your focus and “looking” for things that make you smile, will actually stimulate you to witness increasing items that make you smile. Give it a try !

Copywrite: Joy Miller, PhD, LCPC, MAC

An Update from Runoia

Posted on by Pam Cobb

We are thinking of anyone who is ill and in self-quarantine or hospitalized. We are sending positive thoughts to loved ones, family and friends.

We are well aware that everyone’s every day lives have been turned upside down. Camp Runoia has preserved through other outbreaks (H1N1, SARS, polio) as well as WW1 and WWII and more recent wars. We will forge forward!

We are also monitoring the CDC, following guidelines, and in touch with other resources that have been extremely helpful including our parents who are doctors, our local health team, our insurance company, and food and supply purveyors; we are ready for camp 2020.

The Maine CDC has this info to help understand transmission of COVID-19 and also help lessen the spread of the virus.

Our basic preparedness: requesting no one arrive at camp if they have a fever, pre-camp reach out to families about any illness at home or exposure, our check in systems at camp with new protocols including temperature checks, being outside a lot of the day and frequent hand washing. We are feeling prepared and will continue to respond to new information and recommendations.

Be safe. Stay active. Get sleep. De-stress. Cover your cough. Help others. Practice Social Distancing. Wash your hands!

Message from Camp Runoia

Posted on by Pam Cobb

We research. We monitor. We plan.

Wilderness camping never looked so good!
 
It is just a few months until camp opens and the COVID-19 virus causes many to wonder what might be different about camp this summer. For more immediate plans, families are deciding now about March and April breaks and whether they will need to reschedule a vacation or make other plans. Yesterday, many college students were asked not to return from spring break until scientists have a better understanding about containment and prevention.
 
We are confident we will be in a more stable situation in a couple of months. We are closely monitoring the CDC guidelines and already have new protocols for arrival.  We have systems for sanitizing, we have supplies and we are prepared for temperature checks.
 
Once camp gets started we are in a great position to keep everyone healthy. We have skills for practicing good hygiene and teaching life skills from hand washing to cough covering to sanitizing.  We have confidence in our systems, our partnering with parents and our remote location. We are also realistic and so we watch and learn and implement change as necessary.
 
To all our families and friends, we wish you the best for staying healthy and caring for your loved ones, maintaining productivity and continuing education as we stand strong and wash our hands.

Snow days – dreaming of Camp Runoia summer days

Posted on by Alex

Up here in Maine snow days catch us by surprise and render everything paused for a moment. Even though they may be contemplated and discussed the night before you really have to wait until the actual moment to be rewarded with their surprise reality.

They generally start with waking up to a 5am phone call cancelling school which requires creeping stealthily into rooms to turn off alarms so that everyone can get a few extra hours of sleep. When the kids finally tumble downstairs bleary eyed I am met with questions of ‘no school?’ and ‘is it a snow day?’ There is a celebratory moment of a test missed or an extra day to complete some left over homework and then murmurings of what to do all day. It’s a day of lazy homemade breakfast not rushed bowls of cereal, PJ’s for as long as you like and an open agenda of what can be done. The regular routines of a typical day are thrown off; no one needs to go anywhere except maybe outside to shovel for a bit and the day is free to craft however you would like it.

Being confined to home for the whole day or at least until the plow guy gets to your driveway can sometimes seem endless and often by late afternoon the lament for summer has begun. We dream about swims in Great Pond, what we would be doing at camp at this time of day and how much longer and fuller the days are. At 7pm when it’s already been dark for a couple of hours and we feel like going to bed it’s hard to imagine that it is just time for EP to start. The pull of camp gets us through the cold wintry days.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a snow day at Camp Runoia? Oh what fun we could have with all of our best summer friends. Skating on the lake, sledding on the hill down to the waterfront, cross country skiing around the fields and a campfire in the snow!

No winter diving!

We will get through the long days of the Maine winter daydreaming about our ‘fine Maine days’ at camp.

Camp Fairs – marketing the best sleep away camp!

Posted on by Alex

This week I have been on the road a bunch marketing camp both to prospective campers and potential staff. It is always interesting to consider what to say about Camp Runoia when you literally have a few seconds to make an impression and are hosted in a room full of other incredible programs. Why choose Runoia as a asleep away camp option when you can go Llama hiking in the mountains or get advanced school credit for an academic immersion program?

Camp fairs are a way for families and prospective staff to get an immersion into all of the opportunities that are available. The variety and diversity of camp programs just here in Maine is immense and there certainly is something for everyone. Camp fairs are typically in a gym or student center and have attendance of 50-100 programs. While it is fun to see camp colleagues we all know that we are all trying to make the connection with attendees to share our information and get some traction.

Most all of the programs in attendance at camp fairs have eye catching displays, fun giveaways and are staffed by great personable camp folk. It’s hard to stand out from the crowd and also to connect with the people that really are the best match for your program. The 7 year old boy wandering by trying to score a free pen is certainly not a Runoia camper but maybe he has a sister! In these days of social media and everyone googling and searching online it is fun to connect in real time with real people.

So what does make Runoia different? We are a small camp with an intimate family feel and as one of the oldest girls camps in the country we truly live the history and tradition of youth camping. Runoia creates a space for girls to be their best selves in a safe supportive community and allows campers to explore their interests and talents in a low stress environment. Runoia girls find their summer home away from home and make life long friends while building life skills.

We are still happy to send out material by mail if you would like a camp brochure! It is always a treat to stop by the tiny Belgrade Lakes Post Office to send out camp mail even in the winter.

Conscious Leadership and Learning

Posted on by Pam Cobb

This week four of our Runoia leadership team met in Portland ME for a workshop in conscious leadership. The joke I heard from anyone I told I was going was “I’m glad it’s not about unconscious leadership”.

Truthfully though many of us plow through our days on auto pilot and we don’t frame our interactions with people with a sense of curiosity, an openness to actively listen, not engage in drama, a commitment to feeling and being honest.

Being honest seems so obvious however statistically 97% of people lie at some time. Even answering “how are you feeling?” And answering “fine” is easily a lie. But we all know most people use the question as a greeting and they really aren’t asking for us to unload everything on our minds. So we answer “fine”. We say things to protect people’s feelings or we stretch the truth so we don’t cross wires with someone. And sometimes we lie to do that.

What we mostly received from spending a few hours with an engaging albeit intense, humorous trainer was a way of supporting each other, to be real and honest with each other, to make agreements we can commit to 100% with the caveat that we can re-negotiate the agreement. We are inspired to bring this concept to the rest of our Camp Runoia leadership team.

We realized we can express ourselves, put ourselves in each other’s shoes, not have to solve everything for everyone but create a safety net that will help them to learn on their own.

All year at Runoia we are preparing for the next summer. We model our staff training on workshops we attend, we reach into our bag of tricks to add a special twist to an event for camp, sketch out ideas we share with our team and flesh out together. It’s the positive and calm moments of the off season that help us fire up our engines for the on season.

One of the best parts of preparing for camp is we learn in the process. Camp is a place for intentional youth development and a side outcome is we adults get to grow through the process as well.

The Art of the Handwritten Camp Note

Posted on by Pam Cobb

The camp experience at Runoia is profound in many ways – spawning independence, building self-esteem, learning new activities, developing skills in sports and so on. One of the rarely touted benefits of sleepaway camp is practicing and enjoying handwritten notes.

I grew up in the 1960s and the thank you note was a required skill. One year on my birthday my grandmother sent me a paper back about Helen Keller and an unsigned check for $5. To deposit the check in my savings account, I had to write her a thank you letter for the book and the check and enclose the check so she would sign it and return it. This all happened at the speed of molasses in January, but, eventually it happened. Thank-you letters were a must in my family. The skill has been passed onto my daughter and she expects her three girls to write thank you notes. I’m always amazed at the care and thought they put into those notes.

Back in the day at camp, campers were required to write on the back of a paper newsletter every week. Counselors made sure those newsletters were written, put in a “SASE” (self-addressed stamped envelope) and sent home. We were pretty sure this happened at the speed of the Pony Express because it was at least 5-6 days before parents received those newsletters in their mail box.

Still, to this day, letters received and sent at camp are a joy. Campers pin their notes from their family and friends on their bedroom wall and parents save many notes, especially the ones with the circled tear “this is my tear as I miss you so much”. And the letter would go on to talk about different scenarios around camp, what she accomplished, personalities of friends, something funny or gross (most likely a clogged toilet that overflowed) that happened at camp.

Unplugging and face to face contact is only part of the side-benefit to camp. Campers soon realize you have to write letters to get letters. We encourage parents to send a note to their daughter before camp even starts so she has mail on her first day at camp. Campers immediately write home. Campers send a flurry of letters to their friends at camp and at home and wait in anticipation for a letter like a slow-motion volley in tennis. Although penmanship doesn’t matter, campers are practicing writing through camp letters. A bonus is the hand drawn sketch of roommates, the camp dogs, a horse or sailboat. Camp seeps into the letters and tells its own story.

The art of letter writing lives on through camp. Be on the lookout for a hand written thank you note and a bevy of camp letters in your MAIL box this summer.

Aionur

Community and Camp and Connecting

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Everything about camp is about building community and becoming part of something bigger than just yourself: practicing empathy, inclusiveness and kindness. Being humble when that “oh no” moment happens. Picking up the pieces, reaching out to those you may have affected and reconnecting. At Runoia we also connect with our local community, our Maine community and stay partnered with parents, families, grown up campers, alumnae and more.

We reach beyond Runoia to our local community and they are changed by who we are, too.   Runoia brings a global presence to our small town in Maine. Typically, we have 7-12 different countries represented at any one time at Runoia and they get to know our local area. Parents shop, eat, stay. Campers get out of camp on trips to the Maine coast and to the mountains. Staff enjoy the local area and Portland as well as the peaks of Maine’s mountains and from its rock bound coast to its lakeside villages. People know of Maine because of camp and often Belgrade Lakes, Maine becomes near and dear to their hearts.

Runoia is known in our community from our youngest campers riding in the July 4th parade, our presence at our local farm CSA, our involvement with organizations like the Great Pond Yacht Club, volunteering for pick up on ocean beaches, the Yarmouth Clam Festival, the Belfast Lobster Fest, the Belgrade Library 5 K or the local Aqua Fest, Eyes on the Water/Invasive Plant Lookout, Loon Count — no matter the occasion, Runoia girls get out and help others.  We collect food for our local food pantry and partner with World of Change to help others.

Our alumnae have started business in Maine, bought businesses in Maine, go to college and work in Maine.  Whether it’s Maine Magazine, the Portland Racket Club, Sherman’s Book Store, Sugarloaf, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, UMO/UMF, the Botanical Gardens, massage therapy, construction companies, education and STEM, teachers and administrators in public and private schools, State and National Parks, there are Runoia alumnae scattered working all over the state!

Many alumnae have taken residence in the summer on Great Pond and the surrounding lakes and some alumnae have bought property in Maine and relocated here to raise their families. Campers become connected to Maine in some way forever and Maine camps connect the world to Maine.

 

 

Choosing Summer Camp – Guest Blog by Alicia DeHart

Posted on by Pam Cobb

As a former camper and summer camp counselor I immediately knew that my children would attend summer camp.  As a director at a girls’ summer camp I thought choosing a summer camp for my daughter would be a breeze.  With more than ten years working at a Maine summer camp I had more information about summer camp options than other parents researching summer camps.  I thought this would help me filter through the options to find a final choice rather quickly.  I soon realized that choosing summer camp wasn’t any easier for me than other moms and dads searching for their child’s summer camp.

While I had more information about camps and connections with various people in the camp industry, I was just a mom trying to make the best choice for her daughter.  Choosing summer camp for my daughter was filled with many of the same considerations that families across the country are working through as well.  Our decision process was guided by my purpose of choosing summer camp.  Then the things my daughter and I valued in summer camp.  And finally, our family schedule and other family dynamics.

Why Choose Summer Camp?

As someone who has spent three-fourths of her life at summer camp attending camp is an obvious choice.  However, many of my friends didn’t grow up attending summer camp.  So, their first question was, why choose summer camp?  While I was answering their questions, I quickly realized why my daughter wouldn’t attend the girls camp where I am a director.  This decision was easy, but it didn’t make the decision-making process any easier.

To me summer camp is an opportunity for campers to gain independence and a greater sense of self.  It’s a time away from parents to learn and explore under the guidance of summer camp counselors.  Summer camp is one of the greatest opportunities we as parents can give our children.  I wanted my daughter to have the true camp experience where she could be just another camper.  I felt she deserved the opportunity to have her own adventures just like I had when I was a young camper.

The Value of Summer Camp

The value of summer camp doesn’t come in its price tag.  The value of summer camp comes in the little details found in its values and philosophy.  I knew that I wanted my daughter to experience a camp similar to the camp where I work.  A camp where simple living, independent choice, and a sense of community guides daily life at camp.  I was surprised when my daughter wanted similar things.  She felt strongly about an all-girls camp.  I am sure this was partially because it’s the primary summer camp experience she’s had.  There’s likely an equal part for her choice of a girls’ camp because it guaranteed her younger brother wouldn’t attend camp with her in the future.  She’s an independent spirit so I fully understand her choice in not wanting to share her camp experience with anyone from home.  Especially not her brother.

When discussing camp with my daughter it was very apparent that she wanted an opportunity for a “trial” experience.  She was excited about the opportunity to have “her own camp.”  But she wasn’t quite ready to fully jump in with both feet.  Runoia’s Harmony Land Camp program was the perfect fit.  This shortened summer camp experience provided her an age-appropriate residential camp experience.  It also solidified her desires for an all-girls program with a strong focus on the outdoors.  And there were enough arts options to ensure her creative spirit was never bored.  After Harmony Land she was all in.  Five summers later and she hasn’t looked back.

Choosing Summer Camp for Your Family

The variety of programs and options can make choosing summer camp a complicated process.  However, choosing summer camp for your family schedule and dynamics can make everything more complicated.  One major consideration for us was camp dates because of the school calendar in the southeast United States.  There are summers that school begins before Maine camps are finished.  Due to this a half-summer session was a must.

An unexpected aspect of being a camp mom is the level of communication and individual attention Runoia families receive. The owner/director, Pam, took the time to speak with me about the Runoia experience and answered all of my questions throughout the enrollment process.  The level of attention we’ve continued to receive as a Runoia family has been amazing.  My daughter’s face lit up when she first received a letter from her camp pen pal and welcome post card from Alex.  Now she has the opportunity to do the same for new younger campers.  And my daughter now anticipates her birthday postcard in October!  The connection to summer camp truly continues year-round.

Choosing Summer Camp as A Camp Director

Sometimes being a summer camp director gets in the way of being a camp mom.  The summer season is crazy for all camp directors- our attention is on the amazing campers who create our camp community.  Due to this I knew I had to fully trust the leadership team for my daughter’s summer camp.  As a camp director who speaks with parents on a regular basis, I think this is the most important aspect of choosing a camp for your child.  As parents we are sending our most prized possession away for an amazing experience.  We must fully trust the people who are going to be responsible for them.

Here is where I have an advantage.  I met Runoia Director and Owner Pam very early in my years as a camp director.  As a young director I admired her for her integrity and commitment to summer camp.  As a mom I knew I could trust everyone at Runoia because I knew Pam was leading them.  2020 will be my daughter’s fifth summer as a Runoia girl. Directors Pam and Alex and the rest of the Runoia team haven’t ever let me down.  And more importantly, they’ve gotten to know and supported my daughter like she’s one of their own.  They’ve given her all I could have ever asked for in a summer camp experience and so much more!