The end of camp feels like an amazing high quality chocolate bar that you never want to end and savor it to the last nibble. And ultimately, can’t wait until you allow yourself to taste it again!
Runoia Giggling
The summer season in Maine ends with cool nights, bright days and feel of autumn high in the air. The bittersweet vine begins to form its bright berries that make us smile in the darkening days of fall. The golden rod flower stands erect and bright in the mellowing sun. Afternoons end all too quickly and dusk settles in as we yearn for the long summer days.
Ending anything great is hard to part with – like the end of a good novel or a challenging game or a zip on the Runoia Dragonfly.
The good news about the end of camp is you have your memories, your friendships, your totems of the summer experienced. Be they symbols as in an award for accomplishments, an emblem like your art projects, a feeling you hold near and dear, or the growth others notice in you, these parts of summer stay with you like the bittersweet vine continues to grow. The good news about the end of camp is that Runoia will be there for you in 2015 and beyond.
Although camp ending is bittersweet, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem In Memoriam:27, 1850 sums it up so well:
I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
And as we sing at Runoia “And when I get back home again, I’m gonna study hard and then, back to canoes and paddles”
They devote a great amount of time to their family and friends, nurturing and enjoying those relationships.
They are comfortable expressing gratitude for all they have.
They are often the first to offer helping hands to coworkers and passersby.
They practice optimism when imagining their futures.
They savor life’s pleasures and try to live in the present moment.
They make physical exercise a weekly and even daily habit.
They are deeply committed to lifelong goals and ambitions (e.g., fighting fraud, building cabinets, or teaching their children their deeply held values).
Last but not least, the happiest people do have their share of stresses, crises, and even tragedies. They may become just as distressed and emotional in such circumstances as you or I, but their secret weapon is the poise and strength they show in coping in the face of challenge.
Excerpts from Sonja Lyubomirsky’s work remind me of what camp counselors are doing every day. Great role models, wonderful hard working people guiding children at Camp Runoia. Let the season begin!
Today we received a letter from a parent wrote about her hopes for her daughter’s summer at Camp Runoia. They hoped she would continue to “get close to nature” as she has during the previous two summers at camp. We find these letters from parents helpful for raising our awareness of campers’ needs and goals and also guiding us toward continual improvement of our staff training, facilities, marketing and product. It sounds so business like but guess what? Maine camps are businesses! They are also people and community oriented and based in country, even wilderness, settings.
As the spring pallet has now arrived in full green and we see flowers, hummingbirds, baby osprey, apple blossoms. We pause at every sunrise and take in every sunset. We notice the phase of the moon, the level of the lake water and weather as it comes and goes. We celebrate the natural world around us and are in awe of so many delights in the woods, fields and lakes of Maine. Might this be reason their daughter felt close to nature? We hope so.
Enjoying Nature at CampRunoia Sunrise Over Great Pond
In honor of Maine, its natural beauty and the seasons around us, here is a Longfellow poem to enjoy:
Sunrise on the Hills
I stood upon the hills, when heaven’s wide arch
Was glorious with the sun’s returning march,
And woods were brightened, and soft gales
Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales.
The clouds were far beneath me; bathed in light,
They gathered midway round the wooded height,
And, in their fading glory, shone
Like hosts in battle overthrown.
As many a pinnacle, with shifting glance.
Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered lance,
And rocking on the cliff was left
The dark pine blasted, bare, and cleft.
The veil of cloud was lifted, and below
Glowed the rich valley, and the river’s flow
Was darkened by the forest’s shade,
Or glistened in the white cascade;
Where upward, in the mellow blush of day,
The noisy bittern wheeled his spiral way.
I heard the distant waters dash,
I saw the current whirl and flash,
And richly, by the blue lake’s silver beach,
The woods were bending with a silent reach.
Then o’er the vale, with gentle swell,
The music of the village bell
Came sweetly to the echo-giving hills;
And the wild horn, whose voice the woodland fills,
Was ringing to the merry shout,
That faint and far the glen sent out,
Where, answering to the sudden shot, thin smoke,
Through thick-leaved branches, from the dingle broke.
If thou art worn and hard beset
With sorrows, that thou wouldst forget,
If thou wouldst read a lesson, that will keep
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,
Go to the woods and hills! No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.
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.
Spring time is a happy time at Camp Runoia. It’s basically a celebration! We are excited about the summer season and everyone arriving and getting busy with camp fun. We are busy as bees buzzing around getting buildings spruced up, lawns and trails cleaned up and ordering equipment and supplies for the fun summer ahead.
New in 2014? Lots of things. Among them honey bees! You may have heard a buzz at Runoia and it’s true. We have two bee colonies located in two hives. Both hives are healthy and producing honey and taking care of their queen and producing more honey bees.
Our honey bees will be pollinators for local farmers (as well as our own farm and gardens) and hopefully they will produce honey we can all taste and share at camp! We are learning as we go and with the help of other bee keepers in Maine, we hope to keep our hives alive and healthy!
Honey bees are hard workers and aren’t the type of bees that want to sting people or animals. They are very busy doing their jobs which include guarding the hive, being field bees and pollinators, nursing the queen and other drone activities. If you are worried about a friend who is allergic, we will let you know where the bees are and how to avoid their area! Meanwhile, if you are a bee enthusiast, feel free to share anything with us at Camp Runoia about bees if you’d like to. We are all learning together!
This summer campers can don the bee costumes and learn more about bees. It will be a fun time on the Runoia farm!
I’m fascinated how I learn from old ideas revisited or from re-reading concepts I’ve thought about before. Maybe my grandfather (Roland H. Cobb of Cobb Summer Camps) summed it up with his dry humor, “I like reading the same books over again; I never remember how they end.”.
Today’s tweet from SCOPE was Morris Cohen’s article: The Social and Emotional Long-Term Benefits of Summer Camp. He wrote it for the Mental Health column of dnainfo.com. Cohen’s article was one of those re-reads for me. Even though I know and remember the ending, I loved reading about it along the way; the part about Daniel Goleman’s Social Intelligence and how summer camp helps campers build skills in Social Intelligence. Here’s a snipet – I quote Morris Cohen’s article:
Another Opportunity to Develop Social Intelligence
According to psychologist Daniel Goleman, who coined the term, social intelligence is broken into two parts:
Social awareness is the ability to monitor our inner world — our thoughts and feelings. Social awareness refers to qualities including empathy, attunement to others and social cognition.
Social facility, on the other hand, refers to how we use our internal social awareness to interact with individuals and groups successfully, such as self-presentation, influence and concern for others.
Camp is a key opportunity for kids to develop both sides of their social intelligence by offering them a way to practice becoming adept at socializing by offering them access to many new people and environments.
The more children can practice their social intelligence, the more smoothly they can incorporate the skills for the rest of their lives.
Senior Campers Chill Out Together
Thanks Morris Cohen for sharing this article with readers at dnainfo.com. We are sharing with our readers because we at Camp Runoia agree wholeheartedly! This upcoming summer will be another platform for our 220 girls to stretch and grow and add to their life skills. Camp Runoia – Building Lifelong Skills!
Introducing the Runoia Administrative Team to our Staff
At Runoia we work as a team. We connect daily about campers and families and staff. We like lots of reminders as we have a lot of people to keep track of in our jobs. We like to receive your questions. Contact any of the Director/Admin team and let us know what’s on your mind. If the person you emailed doesn’t know the answer, they will help you find the solution!
You’ll find a lot of other helpful leaders in your activity area when you get to camp. Meanwhile, feel free to email any of us with your questions and/or any concerns or if you’d like to share ideas with us or just say “hi”!
Alex Jackson
Primary responsibility during the summer:
Director of All Programs and Schedules (including your schedule!) Transportation to and from Camp and Staff and Camper Programs
Email: alex@runoia.com Fun Fact: I really like frogs and collected them growing up and now I own a Costa Rican black and green tree frog!
Abby Burbank
Primary responsibility during the summer: Abby joins us this summer as a Summer Resident Director.
She joins our team to help run camp this summer and will focus on Junior End staff guidance and supporting our health care team and program director. Her years of camp experience and serendipity-like timing to join us this summer makes for a great opportunity for Runoia and its families.
Primary responsibility during the summer: Jai lives at camp in the summer and has the pleasure of being the Senior End Coach and Support for Cabin Counselors and this summer she will add: Director to the Runoia Kitchen
Email: jai@runoia.com Fun Fact(s): I have been known to eat an entire watermelon in one sitting!
Gines Satchi
Primary responsibility during the summer: Gines is the summer Director of Program – supporting key leaders to run safe and engaging activities. He is the Director of the Runoia Waterfront ensuring safety and fun on and in the water this summer. Email: gines@runoia.com Fun Fact: I have jumped out of a plane 76 times!
Pam Cobb
Primary responsibility during the summer: Supporting and guiding this amazing team of Runoia Directors. Business management of camp and strategic planning for camp. Come have a K-cup coffee or tea in my office this summer! Email: pam@runoia.com Fun Fact: I am the fourth generation in my family to own and operate a camp in Maine.
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!
The end of February comes quickly with the short calendar month and the longer days in Maine’s winter season. Every day the sun shines longer and brighter and we dream of the days when we hear the screen doors slam, girls voices in laughter, song and friendship.
So much happens at camp.
Wilderness Trips Build Lifelong Skills
There’s growth and learning, building of lifelong skills in activities and receiving support to navigate independently within the community of camp. Other aspects:
Becoming your personal best
Finding friends and building relationships throughout the summers of youth and beyond.
Working through the agony of defeat and experiencing the glory of trying something for the first time.
Guiding our Runoia campers are dedicated youth professionals; coaching, supporting, and making campers laugh when they thought they were going to cry. Basically camp counselors become the adults campers treasure and look up to for years to come. Counselors focus on campers building skills, increasing self-esteem, learning to advocate and being the “stand up girl”. They also create a lot of laugh-out-loud moments in the process.
Skill Building at Camp Runoia…… Happens All Day Long
Our parents are thankful Runoia is so much more than s’mores and fun. Sure we have that going on, but, the depth of camp: learning about yourself and what you contribute to the whole, intentional youth development and life skill building is farther afield for your every day camp program.
One parent sent me an email and this link this week:
A letter to a daughter which applies to all young girls and woman – so perfectly written and seems to fit with the Camp Runoia way so wanted to pass it on:
When I read Dr. Flanagan’s letter to his daughter I had to share as he so eloquently expressed the message my husband and I hope our 14-year-old daughter and 16 and 18-year-old sons live by. I only hope my husband and I are teaching these lessons daily by our example. I am a bit disheartened at the direction corporate culture has taken, not only increasing these societal expectations on young girls but also more recently targeting young boys as well. The eternal optimist in me knows we have wonderful examples all around our children – teachers, neighbors, camp counselors, scientists… to name a few. We simply need to help our children and ourselves understand these are the people we need to emulate rather then the false role models created by corporate marketers.
This week Camp Runoia recognizes National Eating Disorder week. We encourage parents to take stock in the Runoia parent’s declaration (above). Also:
Explore resources with your children that include media literacy*, including awareness of advertising and marketing manipulation of girls (and boys).
Help your children to understand how they are marketed toward to “fit in”, “feel good about themselves” and the falseness this perpetuates at the risk of their own youth and their self esteem.
Leadership Skills Happen at Every Age Group at Runoia
Hats off to camps around the nation that delve a little deeper into the camp experience; to the camps practicing 21st century skill building, youth development and creating communities to belong to without fear of prejudice, exclusive cliques, look-ism or humiliation.
Thanks to our Camp Runoia parent who brought Dr. Flanagan’s letter to our attention enabling us to share with our camp community, peers and professionals in camp.
And, finally, how many days before we are back in our camp “bubble” where our girls can take pressure off themselves, rub a little dirt in their palms and grow into the young people they will become? Not too many – its nearly noon and the sun is still high in the late February sky!
*www.hghw.org is a girl-serving organization teaching media literacy and much more – check it out!
