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!
One of the grand moments of going off to camp is feeling independent and having the opportunity to reinvent yourself. At Camp Runoia you have the chance to be a different person than you are in school or in your neighborhood or with your parents.
Fitness is an Integral Part of Camp
I do not imagine any young girls are scheming about this prior to camp. “When I show up at camp, I am going to be a courageous girl who helps others and is always kind and respectful to adults.” Or “I cannot wait to get to camp where I can be the first one up in the morning to help others with their morning chores.” In fact, it’s not something we even bring up with campers. It just happens and most campers reflect on it at some point during the summer.
A transformation occurs when girls come to camp that is purely organic. The tendency is that within a short period of time, girls drop their “baggage” from the school year and leave it somewhere between the parking lot and beginning of the two mile road to camp. Layers of pressure unload or the steam slowly seeps out from the pressure cooker of life.
Within the first few days campers unpack more of their emotional “stuff and become a little more carefree. They try something new without fear of humiliation. They stand up for others without being excluded from groups. As the summer session carries on, more and more of this happens around them and they find that being their true selves is easy and burden-less. Hallelujah!
Camp Runoia, where diversity is celebrated, people are included and valued for who they are and how they grow and what they contribute to the camp community. This leaves a lot of possibility for girls to try being someone else when they get to camp.
Unlike famous 19th century female writers with pseudonyms “nom de plumes”, many who wrote with male names in a male-dominated profession, some campers truly try out a slightly different persona. They try behaving differently and receive speedy feedback in the form of gratitude, attention, cheers, acknowledgment and adding value. This phenomenon may come in the form of a personal victory of getting up in front of a crowd when they
Runoia Riders at All Levels can Excel
have previously had stage fright or they find themself climbing to a high height when they have been scared of heights in the past. It starts with talking in front of a small group when it’s their turn and builds to performing in the talent show. Or climbing a little bit higher on the climbing tower and then trying the Runoia “Dragonfly” zipline at the end of the session.
Small steps to success lead to large distances covered in life.
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!
The short days and cold temperatures of a Maine winter leave lots of time for indoor activities that we don’t usually pursue during the busier seasons. More time for catching up with books we have wanted to read, playing games and often at our house there is also a jigsaw puzzle on the go.
It takes up space on a not often used desk or counter top and may sit there for weeks as we try to fit it together. Everyone in the family takes turns with it, sometimes pouring over it for hours at other times just putting in one or two pieces that caught our eye. We may all work on it together or take solitary time to figure a part out. These days we are up to 500 – 1000 pieces of fairly complex pictures, not too challenging for the little ones and engaging enough for the grown-ups. The puzzle may get left for days at a time with no solution seeming possible or too many pieces of the same color being too confusing and yet with time and perhaps a different set of eyes someone finds a piece that starts a fresh interest and more of the solution appears.
We know and trust that there is a solution and despite the fact that it sometimes seems impossible every piece has a place and will fit in perfectly. We never quit or put it away until it is complete because we believe that we can do it someday. It doesn’t matter who does the most work or who can fathom a particularly intricate part and we rarely remember who had the pleasure of fitting the last piece.
The end product is really irrelevant, it is the journey that we take to get there, the quiet work we do together or alone, the challenges and frustrations that we must overcome to find what we need and the ultimate satisfaction in a job well done.
As the days get longer the puzzles are forgotten and gather dust in the back of the closet yet the lessons they taught us and the time we enjoyed together resolving them become a cherished part of our memories.
A package arrived in the mail this week from a camper. The box was addressed:
Camp Runoia – the most wonderful gift of all
Inside was a beautiful tree ornament of a glass kayak. The family wrote a note describing how every year they pick out an ornament that represents something important in their lives. This year, the kayak symbolized camp and how important camp was to their daughter. They thought it appropriate to mail one to camp to show their gratitude and appreciation.
At Runoia, we are thankful for the thoughtfulness of this family and also feel the gift of camp is an amazing, life changing, skill building, educational and fun experience you can provide for your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. To all our families and all who believe in camp – thank you!
On a trip to the Midwest, I was struck by two camp connections I encountered. I was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a fairly unlikely place to happen upon Maine camp devotees. Here an enclave of Runoia fanatics created by Camp Runoia’s Director of Equestrian Programs exist. While visiting new families and meeting staff last weekend, I had two striking conversations with two different people.
The first was a camp mom. Her daughter is a quiet and introverted person who made a huge leap to attend sleepaway summer camp in Maine. With the intrigue of riding often and being in a friendly place where she would be encouraged to try new things in a supportive place, she nervously arrived last summer to camp. In her quiet way, it was hard for us extroverts to know if she was having a good time – when asked she shyly replied “yes” and glanced away.
Months later as I’m chatting with her mom at a weekend horse show, I heard her perspective about how she liked camp from her mom: she rode a lot, met a lot of people, took a lot art classes at camp, excelled at archery and left Camp Runoia with a sense of confidence she didn’t know she had. Her mom asked her on a scale of 1-10 how would she rate it? She replied 9. What could have made it better? Attending camp earlier in her life. That conversation, with a Midwestern December blizzard carrying on outside the barn, left me warm and toasty in the cold and breezy spectators area next to the arena where the show was going on.
The second conversation that struck me was with one of our camp counselors and Runoia riding instructors from two summers ago. She also attended the horse show run by Mane Event. She rode a horse owned by our Director and was champion in her class this weekend! She was happy to see me and before she left the show to drive home in the snow storm – leaving herself plenty of day light and time to get back safely – she sought me out to say goodbye.
She shared with me how being a camp counselor helped her be a solid Resident Assistant at her college. She says camp training provided her with “tools in her toolkit” she uses all the time at college. She thanked me for giving her the opportunity to hold one of the hardest and most rewarding jobs she’s ever had and how it has prepared her for life.
In the midst of this snow storm, in a place in the plains, far away from camp and my home, I glowed with warmth from these messages about Camp Runoia. Whether you are reading this from your warm home on a cold winter day or from your office in a mild climate, you can be warmed by the thought of camp and all it has to offer people through its simple yet profound experience.
We look back on the 107th summer at Runoia with a new lens of camp as an oasis for youth. On children and “screen time”, the National Institutes of Health reports: Most children spend about 3 hours a day watching TV. When you add in other screen time activities, it is closer to 5 – 7 hours a day. Too much screen time can:
Increase your child’s risk of becoming obese
Make it harder to get your child to go to bed and fall asleep at night
Increase the chance that your child will develop attention problems, anxiety, and depression
At Runoia, our focus is on creating profound experiences for girls building lifelong skills. While Runoia has always been about community living (learning to get along with others), active lifestyles (life sports like canoeing, riding and tennis) and exploring the world around you (through adventure challenge, wilderness trips and art), today’s emphasis includes having an independent experience with sincere adults other than your parents, building self esteem through trying new things in a supportive environment, being the “stand up” girl and thinking of others – not only yourself – especially in the case of bullying or other exclusive behavior.
Moreover, the relevance of what we do every day with building life skills at camp is in partnership with 21st Century Learning and the concept of preparing campers to be team players, problem solvers, seek solutions and independently manage their lives at camp. Who knew camps would be on the cutting edge of education (P21), be referenced in the importance of “no child left inside” and in Michael Thompson PhD’s book “Homesick and Happy” How time away from parents can help a child grow? Unstructured play time is a buzz word in education and youth development and guess what camp offers throughout our daily schedule? Yep! Safe, unstructured play time. Although Lucy Weiser and Jessie Pond saw the importance of providing a summer experience for girls outside of the sweltering heat of New York City, is it possible they inherently knew how important summer camp really would be?
Today camp is an oasis for children to assuage their fears of being away from home, get time off from “screen time”, have fun times, reflective times, inspiring times, hear the sound of a loon across the lake, smell the fragrance of pine trees and sweet ferns, and meet a friend who may end up being a lifelong friend she’ll share these memories with forever. Camp – more relevant than ever!
Thanks to all of you who support girls going to camp – as parents, grandparents, donors and believers!
I love November and it is tied to Thanksgiving and being thankful, being around loved ones and feeling warm and fed. Thankful being the key word.
When I saw a note that said “if you left your brand new board here, we have it, call us”, it reminded me when we returned a woman’s purse and how good that made US feel (needless to say the woman!). The fascinating part of that story is that we found the purse on a hiking trail in Carrabassett Valley. When we found the ID in the wallet, it was for a student from the Bahamas. Seriously – what do we do with that? Well, when back at the condo, we searched Facebook for the purse’s owner and I shared one friend with that young woman. What are the chances? I texted my friend and viola! Purse returned. And, I digress.
November is the ultimate month for paying it forward (now a verb – the entire action of doing something for someone else after someone does something good for you).
We use the phrase liberally – giving to someone else when you don’t expect anything in return or passing along a good deed or surprising someone else with a good deed. Perhaps it’s a stretch from Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book In the Garden of Delight, nearly a century ago. It was brought to current day society through Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacy’s sweet film based on a novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde – written and directed by two women, btw. Haley Joel Osment who launches a good-will movement. I hear the phrase more frequently now that social consciousness is a school yard and coffee shop subject. Maybe the film helped provide momentum for the movement – good stuff!
Overall, we just want to do GOOD. When I think of the camp experience and all the focus we have on helping others, thinking of others, including others, working as a team, giving to others, I feel #camp is all about Pay it Forward. As a camp business, we want to create good feelings, provide great experiences and hope that all the people we connect with do the same for others. #MaineCamps are exponentially doing good with thousands of campers and staff every summer and those campers and adults are going into their home communities and doing GOOD there.
So, greet November with a warm hug – go do something good for someone else with no expectation and see how great you feel. Pay it forward is easy and effective and far from overused.
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.
Fall is well and truly here. The colder mornings, the blue skies and sunshine with a touch of crisp air, being able to layer and wear your favourite scarf, all clear signs of fall. I am sure everyone has now got acquainted with their post-summer schedule. It may be, being back at school, going to XC practice, soccer practice, dance classes, back to your musical instrument lessons, being back at work the list goes on.
At camp as you can see the leaves are starting to turn and slowly starting to fall. Take a minute this week and have a look around you at the foliage evolving as the season goes on. Now that the school routine is back in full swing you may be reminiscing about the fun times you had at Runoia during the summer. Remember to check out the slideshow of memories on You Tube. Also we want to know what you are up to, 5k races, soccer games,concerts, hanging out anything fun.
Keep an eye out here, our Facebook page and Twitter page about upcoming chances to re-connect with the Runoia community. This may look like, but not limited to; 5k races, Apple picking, Pumpkin patch visit, Bowling night, Winter Ski weekend and more. If you have any suggestions please let us know.
I found this fun pumpkin pie smoothie recipe for the fall season. Click the picture to see more, try it and let us know what you think.
