Parent Archives - Page 16 of 23

American Sign Language at Sleepaway Camp

Posted on October 20, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Word of the Day – American Sign Language Style!

Our Word of the Day is an event at camp that has become a tradition. This summer the WOD was brought to us by Izzy Snyder. She included ALS signs to every word and taught them to the whole camp. Izzy is studying to be an interpreter for the deaf and we learned signs in both sessions at Runoia.

At the end of this session, Keira, a 10 year old camper, wrote a story including some of the signs (the underlined words) we learned in second session at Camp Runoia:

Welcome to the Obscure Challenge.

Here your perseverance, laughter and experience will be staunch and most wanted. During this challenge you will trudge through vegetation. If you win you should feel bittersweet because much worse awaits you after winning. IF you lose you do not have to face what will come, so you should feel grateful. In the next part of the challenge, you will face a question that most people are not imaginative enough to figure out. IF you find the answer it means you have a lot of positivity and you will be flabbergasted by the winner. This is a competition (friendly) of the mind. The winner has a strong mind with tons of inner strength.

Keira, thanks for sharing your great story!

Mountain Biking at Runoia and beyond

Posted on October 14, 2015October 18, 2016 by Alex

As the crisp autumn air flows in, I am reassured as to why I live in New England. For the seasons. Now is a perfect time to get outdoors and enjoy all that New England has to offer. Perhaps a swift hike in the woods or a leisurely walk along the water suits you. For me, I want to go mountain biking.

I was so inspired last summer spending time mountain biking with the girls of Camp Runoia. It is truly a gift to be able to pass on my passion for a great sport onto these young ladies. To watch their eagerness to learn and explore is a tough feeling to beat. I started mountain biking back in the early nineties when the sport first started to take off. Historically, this has been a sport dominated by men, but the question remains, how do we get more girls and women involved in this great sport? When I came to Runoia, I was thrilled to see that we had a mountain bike program. What a great way to expose our girls to a sport they may not be exposed to otherwise. As the bike technology advances and trails and parks become more accessible, my hope is that more young women will try mountain biking. I wanted to share something that a local mountain bike park that I ride at in New Hampshire hosted last weekend. Click here to see a short video with some highlights from the “Women’s Freeride Festival” hosted by Highland Mountain Bike Park.

Highland Mountain Bike Park is a very progressive place which is really on the cutting edge of the sport. Constantly creating new terrain and technical elements, they draw amateur and professional riders from all over the world. I feel lucky to have this resource not far from home. They obviously recognize that in order to sustain a sport like this and a facility like this, they need more riders. I’m sure that this workshop inspired so many women to get into this sport or if already in it, it empowered them to take it to the next level. This is a sport all about personal growth. You can go as slow or as fast as you want…as big or as small as you want. What a feeling when you accomplish the next big challenge for the first time. It truly gives you a great sense of power and accomplishment.

If you have never mountain biked, I encourage you to give it a try! This is an amazing sport which is here to stay. I look forward to many more “Fine Maine Days” next summer spent mountain biking with the fabulous girls of a little sleep away camp which we call Runoia!

By Chris Mercier

A Runoia girl

Posted on September 29, 2015October 18, 2016 by Alex

What a Runoia girl is to me – Emily Friedman aged 9

At the end of every summer, looking back, I remember Runoia. Each summer is better than the last. Camp inspires me to be who I am and know that there are people out there that really care about me. Sometimes even a whole shack of friends!

These photos represent camp to me. The images show some of the places around camp. I also created a model of arts and crafts, a ropes course, drama, woodshop and camp craft. Most of these are my favorite activities. This set up helped me remember Camp when I was missing it after first session was over and I was back at home.

I always remember that:

Every night, someone at Runoia thinks about you before they go to sleep.

At least fifteen Runoia girls somewhere in this world love you.

There are at least two Runoia girls that would die for you.

You mean the world to a Runoia girl.

Someone that you don’t even know from camp loves you.

When you make a big mistake at camp, something good comes from it.

When you think your friend has turned her back on you, take another look.

Always remember the compliments you’ve received from Runoia girls.

Runoia girls will…

Remember

Understand

Never hate

Optimize

Inspire

Amaze

Learning All Year

Posted on September 22, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Off Season/In Service – Directors and Learning All Year Round

Camp is an inclusive environment. Camp is community. Camp provides a place for people to overcome their fears.

Almost a week ago Runoia Directors attended a day long workshop on gender identity and campers at camp.

Two of the guests were 10 year old Lia and 15 year old John. Both attended the conference with their parents. These children were in a room full of 85 camp professionals and telling us their stories. Their stories were focused on their hopes for finding a place to belong, to be a camper, to try things at camp that they don’t usually do at home and to feel a community of support while doing these things.

A room full of camp professionals who spend their lives working round the clock to make their camps the best place possible for all children listened and spoke up, took in information and wrote ideas on newsprint to digest and dissect…. all to figure out how Maine camps can be the leaders in how to include transgender children who want to belong to a camp. It’s a progressive thought to say the least.

The honest truth? These children want to be children and enjoy their summer at camp just like all other children you know. It takes issues we struggle with every day and makes them simple. It’s slightly mind bending or mind blowing depending on how you think about it. And, let’s remember, these children don’t have a campaign or issue with anyone else. They just want to slip in and be part of the fabric of their camp communities.

So, whether it is pottery or horseback riding, skiing or climbing a mountain, we have children who want to be part of camp. What’s wrong with that? In the spirit of inclusive community, creating a place where people can be themselves and enjoy a summer at camp in Maine, these children deserve to be able to face their fears on the Dragon Fly zipline, in a ski boat, on a horse or at the potter’s wheel.

Poetry at Camp Runoia

Posted on September 17, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Many of you know Runoia celebrates reading. We also celebrate writing! Campers submit writing to the Camp “Log” each summer and poetry is often read at Assembly in the morning. The log is full of memories of the Maine summer and records the history of the summer events at Runoia. Many of our campers return to their sleepaway camp as alumnae to seek out memories of their summers in the camp Log.

Here’s a poem Runoia would like to share with you.

Late Summer – By Jennifer Grotz

Before the moths have even appeared

to orbit around them, the streetlamps come on,

a long row of them glowing uselessly

along the ring of garden that circles the city center,

where your steps count down the dulling of daylight.

At your feet, a bee crawls in small circles like a toy unwinding.

Summer specializes in time, slows it down almost to dream.

And the noisy day goes so quiet you can hear

the bedraggled man who visits each trash receptacle

mutter in disbelief: Everything in the world is being thrown away!

Summer lingers, but it’s about ending. It’s about how things

redden and ripen and burst and come down. It’s when

city workers cut down trees, demolishing

one limb at a time, spilling the crumbs

of twigs and leaves all over the tablecloth of street.

Sunglasses! the man softly exclaims

while beside him blooms a large gray rose of pigeons

huddled around a dropped piece of bread.

And When You Get Back Home Again…

Posted on September 1, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

“You get a strange feeling when you leave a place, like you’ll not only miss they people you love, but you miss the person you are at this time and place because you’ll never be this way ever again”-Azar Nafasi

Three weeks have come and gone, since we bid farewell to each other and our place. Our place is Camp Runoia. At camp we are the best possible “us” that we can be. We are safe, we are encouraged and we are organically just ourselves. The friendships we formed at camp are unique. They are extraordinary relationships.

I recently traveled to California and was with friends and family who I had not seen in years. We talked a lot about camp. My uncle and cousins said at one point “ We get it. We are camp people.” Until you have been to camp, until camp has defined who you are, you cannot totally comprehend the degree of depth that overnight camp has on an individual.

Jumping off the Dragon Fly to Zip and Soar — The Dragon Fly to Zip and Soar

And now the sun sets earlier, September is upon us. This fall brings anew for us all. New school year, new teachers, some have new homes and communities. But we have our best self, stashed inside. Like a treasure in our pocket, we can bring our inner strength and our inner sunshine to this new season and these new experiences. We will never be the same again, we grow and we change and with that is the hope that we are our best selves because in part of who we became at camp. At our Camp Runoia…our home away from home.

I find that I take myself home, to Camp Runoia, almost daily. I hum along to songs and think about the sound of the lake and the green of the giant ferns.

“…Dip, dip and swing them back…Flashing with silver…follow the wild goose flight…dip, dip and swing…” — Hum along through the changing seasons … and be your best self on whatever adventure this fall brings.

Kyleigh – Camp Runoia Associate Director

Dedication to the Runoia Log 2015

Posted on August 21, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Passing through the Runoia gates each year, it seems futile to try and predict the course of a summer. Running from activity to activity with a friend you’ve only just met, but with a feeling that you’ve known each other for all eternity. Passing levels, achieving goals, hiking mountains, they’re all a part of camp. Those are the pieces everyone will talk about, the big moments. Other camp experiences are more subtle, yet they are the ones that truly set one summer apart from the rest. It could be something as simple as stopping to pick blueberries on the way to flag raising every morning. It could be a moment between two friends, sitting and watching the waves break calmly on the sand. It could be the night out under the stars, trying to find constellations, and hoping to see a shooting star. It could be that one inside joke between cabin mates that’s funny no matter how many times it’s said, or even just spontaneous and uncontrollable laughter. These little spur of the moment memories are made every day. They can’t be planned or anticipated, but looking back over a summer, that’s what we remember. When school comes back around, and everyone starts to get a little camp-sick, we can sit back and remember the blissful time with friends, where we left all our cares behind and enjoyed the moment we were living in. The little moments, there could be hundreds of them in one day alone, create a feeling. That feeling is the piece of camp that we can’t truly explain, but that we carry with us each day of our lives and makes our time at camp so extraordinary.

That’s why the 2015 log is dedicated to the spontaneous moments that come together to form special memories that will last a lifetime.

Carolyn Solimine

Runoia – A Bittersweet Ending

Posted on August 13, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

The end is always bittersweet.

We like to think of the end as a new beginning. Campers and counselors alike take new skills with them to school and work and life. They cherish new friendships, some that will last a lifetime. Canoeing, sailing, swimming under the sun – those skills will last forever. The counselor who did something caring and thoughtful at a time that a camper needed it, a friend who helped another when they need help, that laughter, endless laughter that they can hear ringing in their ears… these glimpses and moments of summer are instants that weave into the tapestry of campers’ and counselors’ lives. Cotillion is our final evening together. A night of tradition starting with processional singing It’s Blue and White, the teams sitting and facing each other in the Lodge, the awards and ribbons, points awarded and special moments of acknowledging accomplishments. The traditional game of #Hucklebucklebeanstalk to find the final scores of the season, the Bobos and cheers and tears, candle lit paths and the cotillion fireside singing.

This night helps put a punctuation mark at the end of the chapter of the summer of 2015. With Runoia’s 110th summer coming up in 2016, a new chapter will be written.Bitter and sweet. Bitter in the ending, sweet in the experience. Bitter in the goodbyes, sweet in the new friendships.

The end is bittersweet.

Runoia Poetry and Writing

Posted on July 30, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Poetry and Writing from Runoia

Runoia Unique – by Third Shack

Shoes decorate the porch to the Lodge as laughter escapes the four walls.

Inside kids that were once strangers are now bonded by friendship bracelets and stories of horse riding and wind surfing.

Piled by the fire in crazy creeks and singing songs of the blue waves, I am in awe of the compassion and acceptance around me. At Runoia, campers come from all across the world to find their home away from home.

The Lake by Lizzie N.

By the trees

With the leaves

I like to sit

Ideas lit in my mind

By the lake

Riding the wake

I sit and breathe

Maybe even weave

Away from canned foods

Electric hairblowers,

Dumb TVs.

I like to sit

Maybe bike

At the lake.

Camp Runoia by Charlotte W.

Crazy fun

Amazing Experience

Memories that will last a lifetime

Probably the best camp ever.

Ready to come next year

Uniqued yet fun activities

Never boring

On beautiful Great Pond

Inspires me to come back every year

Always fun

Making Songs into Summer Messages

Posted on July 26, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

I know a place where the sun is like gold, and every evening you play games like Know Your Counselor, Lip Synch Contest, Stop the Bus and Broomball.

Out on the blue waves, where summer breezes blow, our boats, kayaks, windsurfers, swimmers and stand up paddle boarders go sailing into sunset glow.

Make new friends but keep the old; this summer at Runoia we’re meeting people from California to Florida, from Minnesota to Texas and from England, Spain, Venezuela, Ireland, Hungary and Switzerland. We are a merry merry crew the Runoia girls are we!

Be it ever so humble there’s no place like camp and when you travel to Attean Pond and to the Bigelow range, returning to camp feels just like home. Our equestrian team traveled to Camp Vega and brought home the Championship ribbon. There’s no place like home!

And so I thank the earth for giving me, the sun and the rain the apple tree – we are ever grateful for our sun drenched days, and even a summer storm or two keeping camp green and perpetuating a #FineMaineDay.

Where does the wind come from? Does anybody know?

Besides turning thoughts into camp song, we’ve been busy with activities, meeting people, creating art, learning about tennis, archery, riding, skiing, sailing, basket making and more.

Until next week. Love, Aionur