Category: Maine life

Whatever the weather it is always a ‘Fine Maine Day’

Posted on by Alex

Rain or shine we are always making the most of our opportunities and have been having a blast with a wider variety of friends at Camp Runoia this week. The Maine weather has certainly thrown everything at us, from bright, sunny, hot days to showers, thunderstorms and fall-like evenings. We navigated around the liquid sunshine and soaked up any available rays as we motored through another amazing week of camp. We are making memories, friends for life and having the most fun outdoors that we can while building our ‘life skills.’

There is so much gratitude for being here. The campers really are so open to sharing time with friends, engaging in whatever is going on and bringing their best selves. Everyone really got into the camp groove this week. Girls that were new last week seem like they have always been here and have joined the old timers with feeling at home and comfortable here. Community living is filled with the opportunity for connection with people of all ages and from all places. We have really been enjoying more mixing and mingling as we celebrated being covid free.

The highlight of the week was definitely getting to ‘tag up’ for the first time. Campers got to choose their own schedule and after trying lots of activities with their shacks over the past week had a good idea of where they wanted to focus their energy. We also ‘dived’ into formal swim lessons and girls are working hard to pass levels and also be ready for the Oak Island swim that will be coming up on one of the last mornings. We practiced for blue/white games and hope to add some volleyball this year. Outside news of the Olympics is often breakfast table conversation.

This week’s ‘in harmony with nature’ moment was brought to you by the squirrel in the mid soapies!

EP’s have been so fun this week, with a ‘pairs party’ and a not so chill ‘chill out’ night topping the list. Thursday saw all of camp out on the fields, courts and under the tent doing whatever they wanted to. Girls of all ages were intermingling, laughing and playing together. While a few campers chose a good book and a quiet spot under the trees or on the old rock wall most were actively engaged in sports and activities. Tennis, basketball, lacrosse, field hockey, four square, parachute games, bracelets and myriad of random made up games were going on. The joy and laughter was palpable and everyone was happily tired and in bed at ‘goodnights’.

The parachute blob was like this a while!

We were sad to see our young Harmony Land friends finish their session on Saturday morning. The HLCB crew are all ready for a full session next summer and were so fun to get to know. The little sisters who finally got to be campers and join their older siblings at camp this summer were pretty excited! We do wonder what their parents got up to having all of their kids off at camp for 12 days. 

Shout out to the Hoffmann’s with all 4 girls in camp at one time. SV, 6th shack, 2nd shack and HLC it could be a Runoia record! 

 

We will be making the most of every moment over the coming week, maximizing our opportunities, deepening our friendships and enjoying all that Runoia has to offer.

 

First week of fun – Great Pond camp life

Posted on by Alex

Our first session girls arrived last Sunday on a hot and sunny Fine Maine Day! After unpacking and meeting/getting reacquainted with their cabin mates, everyone got a chance to take their swim tests and enjoy a quick dip in the lake – our fabulous 8,000 acre Great Pond. Supper was a delicious combo of spaghetti and meatballs, salad and vegetables, garlic bread, and brownies, and it was wonderful to hear the laughter of new and old campers alike ringing through the dining hall and outdoor tents. Evening program for our junior end campers included a game called “Mostest” in which each cabin worked together to create cheers and songs and even wrote and performed a commercial for Runoia! Senior end played Family Feud, while our oldest girls in senior village had their own special campfire by the lake. Milk and Crackers were enjoyed by all before returning to cabins to make community contracts and gain a better understanding of what each of us need to be our best selves at camp this summer. Counselors began reading their cabin books aloud as girls settled into beds for the night. We miss our loved ones who are not with us here at camp, but homesickness is easily overpowered by all of the fun and excitement everyone is having doing activities and spending time with friends. 

The first full day of camp was another hot one! We started with an orientation in which we found out (or were reminded) where everything was around camp, practiced vehicle safety evacuation drills, learned how to put on our PFDs for when we go out on the blue waves in boats, and played many get-to-know-you games. Activities started after lunch and rest hour, and we had almost all campers swimming in the lake for recreational swims! Horses walked and trotted around the ring up at the barn while a fleet of kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards, aka “Floatilla”, headed out into the cove. Our Harmonyland girls took a little hike to our Fairy Ring campsite and built fairy houses out of leaves, sticks, pine needles, and birch bark. After supper, our junior end girls enjoyed a beach night on the waterfront, and our senior end girls got to play a variety of land sports and even got in an evening swim to cool down before bed. Campers fell asleep looking forward to the first activity block starting the next morning.

The first activity block flew by with shacks going together to give each area a try, from flotilla’s on the lake, climbing in the trees and learning the art of shooting sports everyone found something they loved and an activity to work at throughout their session here. The heat meant lots of lake time and evening programs were modified to include much appreciated swims. The sounds of splashing and laughing in the cooler evening air could probably be heard by our Camp Runoia alumnae neighbors over in Echo Cove.

 

A bit of rain and cooler weather provided opportunity to focus on our arts skills, work on fitness and get some impressive dance routines going! Nothing stops us and we kept activities running and the fun going. The gaga pits are full at free time with some intense games going on and everyone being included. 

We are so grateful to have camp full again. To see our girls that we missed last summer, to welcome new friends into the Runoia family and to be able to spend amazing time together on Great Pond. In person, unplugged life in the woods is pretty fantastic! We have been able to watch a nest of baby barred owls learn to fly and hunt in the evenings over the kickball field. How lucky we are to live’in harmony with nature’ and get to have these experiences on our beautiful lake in Maine.

We are ready for another week of fun and frivolity, growth and learning and deepening the friendships that we have started to make.  Making life long memories and developing life long skills every minute of the day!

 

Counting down the days and checking the lists

Posted on by Alex

There are only 60 days until the first session of camp opens. It will be Camp Runoia’s 115th season on Great Pond and we are preparing for it to be the best yet. After a year of challenges, isolation and unpredictable schedules we are eagerly anticipating the routine and familiarity of camp life. The days until camp are getting shorter and the to do list are getting longer!

For some of us 60 days seems like an eternity. There is school to finish up and end of the year events to attend. As we get ready to open camp we know that 60 days will fly by as there is much to be done to get the campus and program ready to roll for the summer. 

This week the focus in the office has been on putting the finishing touches to our 9 days of staff training. The time before the campers arrive is packed with getting our seasonal staff up to speed on all things Runoia and also making sure that everything is perfectly ready to start the summer. There are certification trainings, bonding exercises, cleaning and opening of cabins and activity areas along with a whole lot of fun while building our team and getting to know each other. This year we are really working harder to include more education and awareness about diversity, equity and inclusion and have been tweaking our sessions to reflect our commitment to doing a better job. Staff will come together from many different places looking forward to the opportunity to work with Runoia campers and enjoy all that the Maine outdoors has to offer.

We have also been recruiting the last few staff to join the team, filling the final camper spaces and getting the spring new camper penpal mailing ready to go. The work in the camp office is always diverse. It’s been frequently interspersed with webinars and workshops updating us on covid protocols and best practices for the summer. The bonus of us all working remotely is that it is easy to share information and we can hop onto presentations anywhere in the country. The days are already getting exciting as we get to read letters to the directors and start to ‘meet’ the 2021 Runoia girls.

Our inboxes are filling up with questions from new families mostly about packing as campers excitedly start preparing what they will need. There are uniforms being ordered and crazy creek chairs purchased. In many homes camp is now a daily topic of conversation. 

On the campus grounds side of the work, the daffodils are blooming and it’s finally time to get into camp and start the clean up. The winter usually brings downed branches and a lot of acorns so the crew will be in to do a good pick up. It won’t be long before the grass gets its first cut, the water gets turned on and the docks all go in. It will start looking more like the camp our girls are used to once the shutters come down and the cabins are opened up. A few spiders will need to be rehomed into the woods and we will be ready to get year 115 rolling.

We want the next 60 days to be filled with excitement, with preparation and planning. For them to give us enough time to get everything done but also to fly by so that all of our summer family will be ‘home’ soon.

Belgrade Lakes – the Foodie Town in Central Maine

Posted on by Pam Cobb

With more people living in Central Maine, the demand for quality take-out and restaurants has grown as well. Over the years Central Maine’s population has grown and sophisticated pallets have grown with the influx of people “from away”.

With our new hospital, Maine General, attracting physicians and health care workers from far away, more retirees have been attracted to our recreational area, many skiers drive through to Sugarloaf on Rt. 27 and the fact that people have made the Belgrade Lakes region their second home. During the pandemic, many people have worked from home and stayed in Maine after the summer.

The influence of Portland, Maine restaurants movement to farm to table and sustainable food sources, local breweries and oyster and sea-agriculture, has influenced Central Maine as well. Belgrade restaurants like The Village Inn and Tavern source local food, grass fed beef, meat without hormones and antibiotics and locally brewed beer. Hello Good Pie, bakery, café and meals to go, prepares quality food with locally sourced dairy, meat, vegetables and fruit as part of their everyday fare.

Of course, if you’re searching for that comfort food, there is always the Sunset Grill, Spiro’s Gyros, the local hot dog stand on the way to the transfer station and even the 5-star Belgrade Lakes Golf Course serves everything from a dog to a lobster roll.

In summer the Belgrade Farmer’s Market is a place to see and be seen. Many people arrive by boat to the 7 Lakes Alliance docks where the market opens every Sunday from mid-June until harvest season is over in the fall.

Many of our parents will be driving their daughters to camp this summer. You may be one of them! As you prepare for your trip to Maine, make sure to include a stop in Belgrade Lakes to experience our Foodie
Town.  Finish off your tour of tasting at The Dairy Bar for a Gifford’s cone and call it a good day!

Spring Equinox Is Almost Here by Guest Blogger Mark Heuberger

Posted on by Pam Cobb

The first day of spring is March 20, 2021, which coincides with the vernal equinox. According to astronomers, this is the moment when the sun crosses exactly over the earth’s equator and the length of day and night is approximately the same.  The days then start to become longer than the nights, leading to those long summer days at Camp, when the sun does not set until 8:30 PM.

For Camp Runoia, the first day of spring starts us thinking about the fields, forests, and lakes warming and recovering from winter. We will soon start seeing the tiny sprouts of the ferns emerging from the earth; some ferns will grow to three or four feet high. The trees slowly become colored with buds, flowers, and leaves. We begin combing the woods for lady slippers and trillium flowers.  We are counting the days until Camp (100 till first session 2021!).

And of course, the first day of spring means that “Ice Out” is soon.

Some readers of this blog may not realize that the lake freezes over completely in the winter, covered in several feet of ice. Enough for trucks to drive out on the lake towing ice fishing huts.  At some point in spring, the ice suddenly thaws and disappears. Soon the loons will return and we will hear their calls again. Boats and docks will reappear on the lake and in a few short months we will be swimming, paddling, sailing, and skiing on Great Pond.

According to the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, who keep records of ice out dates on all Maine lakes, “Ice Out” is defined as the first day when you can navigate from one end of the lake to the other, even though there may still be ice in some coves or along the shoreline.

Ice Out dates for Great Pond over the last 20 years have typically been in middle to late April, but in four of the last 20 years, ice out has been in March, as early as March 20 in 2010, the first day of spring!  When will ice out be this year? Stay tuned.

For many this winter has been especially challenging. The coming of spring, the long warm days, the new beginnings, and the new opportunities are almost here and are welcomed.

Love, Aionur

Camp Runoia – overnight camp is a hot commodity

Posted on by Alex

We may be in the sparkly depths of winter here in Maine but many people’s minds are on the summer and planning for a season of camp. Overnight camp is a hot commodity this year. Many children missed the opportunity last summer and are longing to get back to nature and friends at their summer home away from home. While there is hope that the pandemic situation will be a little more resolved by June we also have the realization that mass vaccination and development of herd immunity is going to take a good while to accomplish.  We need some hope and fun to look forward to. In some States teachers are slated to be vaccinated soon and there is potential that kids may get back in school before the end of the year but other places lag behind and virtual or hybrid school continues with little end in sight. We are holding out for an awesome summer and are ready to jump right in to camp life!

Camp has the unique opportunity to create a healthy, fun, in person environment where we can spend as much time as possible outdoors and can participate in all kinds of activities, in real life with other people. Our success last summer proved that we can navigate covid protocols and that while it may look a little different to how camp operated in 2019 it is still spectacularly Runoia. If you are curious about our adaptations last summer you can check them out here.

I have spoken with families from California to NY whose children have been in virtual school since last March. Little interaction with peers, no sports or after school activities along with  isolation from places and people that they love has been hard for everyone. Regular family vacations and summer plans are also looking unlikely for this year as travel still remains challenging and there is a great deal of uncertainty about how open States will be. This recent New York Times article sums up the challenges  that parents are currently facing.

Camps in Maine are filling up faster than ever, and Runoia is already almost at capacity. Already signed up are our campers that navigated camp successfully in 2020, those that took a leap year and are excited to be returning, new families that are ready for the opportunity and a myriad of girls that want to get out on their own for some summer fun. Full season spaces are at an all time high as other summer opportunities are currently limited and it seems like once you get to camp it’s the best place to stay for the summer. We are not kidding when we email and tell you there are just one or two spaces left in a cabin and if you want them sign up today!

‘Masks up lets go’ and get enrolled for the best summer ever!

Building life skills through adversity

Posted on by Alex

Building life skills is what we do at Camp Runoia. Little did we know that 2020 would test the skills that we had and encourage us to go far out of our comfort zone to develop new ones. We learned so much about ourselves, our campers and about the meaning and power of camp through being resilient  and adapting.

Looking back now we are grateful for the opportunity that a covid summer presented us to. We had to be flexible, grow, reconsider how we have always done things and be willing to modify, change and adapt in an instant. It turned out to be an amazing all be it exhausting summer and one that will certainly go down in the history books of Runoia.

     Takeaways from summer 2020:

  • We practiced doing hard things and did them well
  • We stopped sweating the small stuff
  • We learned new skills and revisited old ones that we hadn’t had time for
  • We reassessed what had value to us
  • We were more appreciative of the people and activities that we missed
  • It’s was OK to let some traditions go and know you can come back to them
  • We adapted and were flexible under ever changing circumstances
  • We used a growth mindset to challenge what we had done in the past and make it viable for the current situation
  • If you ask people will show up to help in ways you may not have thought of
  • You have to make the most of the moment in time that you have
  • Time with family is valuable but you need your friends too!
  • It may not be what you imagined but it can still be spectacular
  • Nature just keeps doing it’s thing. Sunset on the lake is beautiful.
  • Community comes in many forms, when we support each other we are all stronger
  • We maximized the opportunities that we did have rather than lamenting the ones that we didn’t
  • We had an amazing  summer on Great Pond that we never could have imagined   

As the year comes to a close we have deep gratitude for all that we have and look forward to 2021 with joy and eager anticipation. Happy New Year to our Runoia family, see you on Great Pond.

Hope for next summer

Posted on by Alex

As we navigate life living with covid 19 and create our own ‘new normal’ managing all of the procedures and public safety protocols, even regular everyday life can get a little overwhelming. It is sometimes hard to see a way forward without taking two steps backward.  We are all living in an unknown time with so many questions about what the immediate and long term future may look like. Information still seems to change on an almost daily basis, schedules are always flexible as schools shift back and forth between in person, virtual and hybrid learning models. Talk of the looming holiday season and how that may look for families is becoming a more current conversation. Making plans for any travel or vacation out of state seems like an impossible feat. We are only able to navigate the present which for a culture that loves a planner and to have life scheduled out is proving very challenging for many.

So how on earth are we ready to open enrollment for camp in the summer of 2021?

The path to the lake is always there.

How do we make decisions when we don’t know what the future may look like? Perhaps it is time to just jump in with hope? Get the puppy, eat the cake and be sure to sign up for camp! We know from our experiences of this past summer that we can create a safe and engaging space for our girls to have an intentional summer experience.

Camp Director colleagues who were unable to open camp this past summer have been keen to chat with us about how our summer went.  They don’t really have specific questions but more are seeking hope for how they can operate in 2021. As everyone has different sites, programs and clientele there is definitely no magic ‘this will work for you’ solution. How we operated Runoia in 2020 may also look slightly different than how we do it in 2021 as we will be another year down the covid road. We talk often about attitude and mindset. Knowing that opening camp and running safe programs has been done encourages others that it can be done at their camp too. Camp Directors are a positive, resilient, creative crowd and are keen to dig into how they can operate safely in 2021. Sharing stories and telling our tale of summer 2020 helps the profession as a whole. The collective hope is that the most amount of campers can safely get to their camps next summer.

Hopefully our Harmonyville campers are telling their stories too! Other kids need to be hearing from their peers that going to camp next summer will be safe and fun. Peer sharing has so much value in generating a narrative that has substance.

We take pride in the fact that 2021 is Camp Runoia’s 115th continuous season of operation. We will definitely be ready for yet another amazing summer on Great Pond.

Garage band – creatively navigating covid

Posted on by Alex

My choir has been singing in a parking garage! We literally drive in, park on one side and then can spread out on the other side so that we can sing together. It’s never something I would have imagined doing.  It’s certainly not the same as a typical rehearsal space. The sound is at best interesting but it at least provides us the opportunity for community singing and some choral experience. We have had to be incredibly creative and intentional with the covid protocols.  Numbers are limited, everyone is 13 feet apart, masks and social distancing are strictly enforced when not on your X and the time is restricted to under an hour. Everyone is on board with navigating the rules and enjoys being together far better than when we are  meeting on zoom. Sometimes it’s chilly and as the nights are getting dark earlier the lighting isn’t great so it isn’t going to be a long term solution moving forward into the winter but it has worked for now. Having a great attitude and out of the box thinking has resulted in a workable solution and an unexpected outcome. I was skeptical at first but it has turned out to be incredibly fun and allowed us to shift out of our usual pattern and engage with each other differently with very positive results.

 

Working from basic goals and using mission based planning, navigating through covid has become a challenge facing many community organizations. While there are often defined protocols and procedures for many operations sometimes you just have to be a bit crafty and do what works best in your individual situation.  It would certainly have been easier to have just cancelled this semester of choir. It isn’t really essential, it’s more a social outlet than anything else and there is no hope of giving a public concert indoors anytime soon so we are not rehearsing for an event. Yet a desire to be together, to maintain our community and to engage in person drove the problem solving and created a workable solution. 

As camps are busy looking towards the summer of 2021 and enrollment is opening up, having a positive ‘can do’ attitude and being able to think outside of the box is going to move us forward. At Runoia we are glad to have had these past summer experiences to build off of.  We feel confident that we can be flexible and navigate covid protocols while still maintaining our camp goals and mission. We want to be part of the solution for camps so that the most children possible get a summer experience that is tech free and engaging. We are planning, thinking, reflecting and know that we will be ready.

We can’t wait to share our 115th continuous summer on Great Pond, creatively navigating whatever comes our way and helping our campers to have an amazing summer. At Runoia we model for our girls that we are resilient, capable, competent and confident. Summer camp is a place to grow and we are confident that we will all be doing that, building life skills that are relevant to the world that we live in.

Changing and growing

Posted on by Alex

A couple of weeks ago for a spring treat and a little at home entertainment, I bought five baby chicks. They were already a week old and just the cutest, little, yellow, fluffy balls. What a difference a couple of week makes. They have doubled in size, are almost completely brown, have started to grow wing and tail feathers and are flapping around more practicing their flying skills.  They remain as noisy as ever, eat a ton of food and are messy as anything. They just do their chick thing day after day and in no time at all will be out with the rest of the flock and laying eggs to earn their keep. It is surprising how quickly they mature and grow and is just incredible to see it happen right before your eyes. We can only hang onto the memory of those cute little fuzz balls while we appreciate the delicious eggs of the grown hens.

 

It seems that like the chicks the world around us is changing rapidly right before our eyes too.  We live in a somewhat sedentary state while waiting to spring back into action. The future seems to be filled with the unknown and lots of unanswered questions of ‘what’s next?’ ‘how will we..?’ We really do not know what to expect from one moment to the next. It’s hard to move forward and make plans and any plans that we do make need to be fluid and open to change at a seconds notice. We know that we cannot go back to how things were just a few short weeks ago so will keep growing into this new phase of life. We will develop plans, be willing to change and move forward as best we can.

Keep growing and changing Runoia girls, we can do hard things and even if we may lose our fluffy fuzziness we will grow some really great useful wings!