Category: Current News

Coach!

Posted on 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.

100_8370Many 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.

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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!!

Bittersweet Endings at Camp Runoia

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Bittersweet Endings

The end of camp is also a beginning.

The end of camp means saying “see you later”.

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
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.breakwater walk

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”

Runoia paddlers
Runoia paddlers

Happy Back to School!

 

 

 

Camp Runoia News – Limerick Style!

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Camp this week was a blast

We made each minute last

Playing out on the lake

Riding horses and ate cake

Our time here went by too fast!

 

 

Trips this week were so fun

Canoeing and hiking got done

Fun days at the beach

Mountain peaks within reach

We made it through thunder and sun!

 

 

Capture the Flag was an EP

Also we had a birthday party

Sunday was The Dot

Monday football was fought

Lip Synching skits were the key

 

 

Blue White playing has begun

Kayaking, swimming and a run

The tri brought new game

Of Ironwoman fame

At CR sporting is fun

 

 

The end of summer ‘14

Mixes our thoughts in between

With family in sight

And tears of delight

Hugs with friends makes quite a scene!

News from Runoia

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Rabbit Rabbit!                                                                 August 1, 2014

 

As this note from Great Pond is written, it’s Friday the first day of August. We can hardly believe it! Your camper’s note will be added this weekend and on Monday this letter will make its way to you over land and sea.

 

We awoke to a foggy Maine morning. This Polar Vortex thing is really a thing here at camp. Temperatures dipped into the 60s upon dawn and we expect them to creep up to the 70s again today. A pattern we saw develop this week as we continued with all activities at Runoia.

 

Camp is abuzz with its usual activities that are more than your every day happenings: surfing in the wind, Dragonfly zipping, shooting 22s, hosting Camp Caribou for an archery tournament, waterskiing, throwing a pot, jumping a horse, practicing for A Perfect Storm, woven baskets, thrown pots, shot pictures, painted batik and scarves, practiced soccer skill drills and conditioning runs and much more. In addition to all that, a few people have canoeing on their minds and have been wearing canoes on their heads. We’ve learned about wood peckers and owls and also learned a lot of Runoia songs this week.

 

Trips went to Mooselookmeguntic, Katahdin, Camden Hills, Oak Island for camping trips and Mt. Blue, Maiden Cliffs and Bradbury Mountain for day trips.  Some campers stayed in camp to enjoy workshops – longer blocks of time at specific activities.

 

Our evenings were filled with talent show acts, scavenger hunts, a campfire with the theme of New Beginnings, Miss Tacky Runoia and more. Graduating senior campers are working on their plaques for the Boat House and other special events are happening throughout camp. They include milk and cracker dance parties, special DOT jumping times, walking the camp dogs, spa with Barb, baking cookies with 2 Sophies and Chandler, an early morning swim, skiing at Rest Hour and other prizes won at the Gold Rush auction.

 

Camp food is really nothing like “camp food”. From Pasta Bar to Chicken Devine and blueberry muffins to graham cracker pie, the kitchen crew keeps us well fed and happy.

 

Until next week,

 

Aionur

What Happy Runoia Counselors Do Daily:

Posted on by Pam Cobb
  1. They devote a great amount of time to their family and friends, nurturing and enjoying those relationships.
  2. They are comfortable expressing gratitude for all they have.
  3. They are often the first to offer helping hands to coworkers and passersby.
  4. They practice optimism when imagining their futures.
  5. They savor life’s pleasures and try to live in the present moment.
  6. They make physical exercise a weekly and even daily habit.
  7. They are deeply committed to lifelong goals and ambitions (e.g., fighting fraud, building cabinets, or teaching their children their deeply held values).
  8. 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!

Maine Orchids

Posted on 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!

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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

photograph of a pink lady's-slipper

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

 

 

Spring is in the Air!

Posted on by Pam Cobb

GH1Spring 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.GH2

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!

Here’s a picture of us checking the bees today:

bees

 

Culture and tradition

Posted on 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.

DSCF0943At 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.

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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 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!

tap shoesLife 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!

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Summer Camp, Emotional Intelligence and Prep for Life

Posted on by Pam Cobb
Summer Camp provides Social and Emotional Intelligence
Million Step Race – All Levels Welcome!

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.

Summer Camp provides time and space for campers to process, engage and facilitate their own discussions.
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!