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Camp Runoia summer 2017 is here!

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Alex

Planes, trains and automobiles – getting to Camp Runoia

It’s almost time for our girls to arrive and we seriously can’t wait to open the gates and start our 111^th season of overnight camping on Great Pond. Our week has been filled with wrapping up staff training, putting the finishing touches to the campus, ordering food and supplies and talking about what makes Runoia special. We have learned songs, practiced schedules and routines and helped each other learn the intricacies of how our community works. A new generation of staff has been amazed at our history, are in awe of the amazing women who came before us and are ready to fill those big shoes.

We know that for our girls it has been a week of packing and repacking, finding lost song books, cramming an extra stuffie into trunks and generally preparing to be away from home for a couple of weeks. Some families have pre camp rituals, a special dinner out or a vacation with everyone before the separation of camp. For others just wrapping up school, camp is an oasis of calm growing ever closer.

Getting everyone here on time and safely is quite the task. Girls will drive up with their family, fly in from faraway places or enjoy fun with friends on the camp bus. They will be met by new friendly faces wearing Runoia shirts and will quickly settle in to their home away from home in Harmony Land.

We cannot wait until we have everyone safely tucked into their camp beds on the first night. When the names on a cabin list become real children the work of the entire year becomes reality.

We are ready to welcome in the 2017 summer season at Runoia may it be filled with adventure, guided challenges, new friendships, great food, long summer days and most of all harmony.

You can’t change the weather at Camp Runoia

Posted on June 14, 2017June 19, 2017 by Alex

It’s been over 90 degrees in Maine for the past few days and the same people who a couple of months ago were complaining about the cold are now saying it’s ‘too hot’! One thing we can’t control is the weather but we can chose our clothing carefully and plan activities that best suit it. Today was perfect for a dip in the lake and yes we did have a really great ski season this past winter.

Making the best of any give situation and figuring out solutions to the problems it may expose us to is a real life skill. We value challenges at Camp Runoia as they help us to learn and grow. While camp is certainly utopian it isn’t perfect and we wouldn’t want it to be. Being away from home and being allowed to make choices and decisions and having to deal with everyday events is as much a part of the camp experience as s’mores around the campfire.

Campers quickly learn how to navigate the schedule, make the most of the opportunities at any given time and speak up if their needs are not being met. Allowing girls to occasionally be dissatisfied, to not always get their first choice and to only have one serving of desert build coping and resiliencey skills.

Running through puddles barefoot on a rainy day, watching the power of a storm speed across the lake from the safety of the boathouse or getting a quick dip before bed on a steamy night are all experiences that add to the camp magic. Scheduled days are filled with organized activities and also free time for spontaneous fun.

We can manage many things at camp but we can’t manage the weather or slow down time. We make the most out of every minute, maximize our opportunities and enjoy the time with our friends.

For those parents who just cant resist knowing what’s going on at camp with the weather, rest assured, we have plenty of tricks up our sleeve for making everyday a ‘fine Maine day.’

Sleep-away camp provides a myriad of opportunities for growth whatever the weather.

Tag up time at Camp Runoia -independent decision making

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Alex

It is almost time for Camp Runoia on Great Pond in Belgrade Lakes, Maine to open for its 111^th season.

As a camp where girls are encouraged to be themselves and grow as individuals one of the greatest legacies that our Runoia founders left us was that of camper led decision making. From the time Camp Runoia was founded girls and young women have had choices. Morning ‘tag up’ after breakfast has become a staple of how girls make decisions and plan their own days at camp. With around twenty different activity choices for each period there is something that appeals to everyone. Check out the choices!

In a world where many of our campers are in very academic school programs and spend their after school time running from one pre-scheduled activity to another ‘tagging up’ allows for freedom and individuality of choice. As parents of toddlers we are coached on giving choices to develop independent behavior but as children get older their decision making autonomy decreases.

There are no parents involved in how girls make choices at Runoia. The great news is that you don’t have to commit for a semester or a 10 week block and if you like something you can do more of it or if you don’t like it all that much you can choose something different next time. Youth involved decision making is a building block for developing life skills.

When girls make their own activity choices at camp or chose what they would like to do in their free time they can focus on themselves and their own needs and wants at that given moment. While some girls come to camp with a master plan for their choices others enjoy a more flexible schedule and choose based on their goals, their mood that day or even the weather. For some the challenge of choosing may initially be overwhelming, for others the days are too short to fit in everything that they want to try or work on. There is no right or wrong way to ‘tag up’ it’s just your own way!

Every camper has her own individual schedule that changes daily.

However a Camp Runoia girl makes her choices she is supported by caring adults who provide encouragement. Campers are reminded to set and aim for goals, try new things, stick with projects that need finishing, be an independent thinker and of course maximize the opportunities that camp provides.

In our over scheduled, busy lives, ‘tag up’ provides structured freedom of decision making in a safe place.

Memorial Day Cookouts and Camp

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Pam Cobb

What would camp be without a “cookout” – the quintessential American experience?

Each week at Camp Runoia, it’s cookout for Saturday supper! Dogs, burgs, veggie burgers, sometimes a surprise salmon or kebob accompanied by the requisite salad bar with fruit salad, potato salad and pasta salad and usually chips and pickles. Topped off with ketchup, mustard and nowadays, hot sauce makes for a fun outdoor meal.

One of our favorite parts about cookout is that it’s an outdoor picnic style meal which means after you get your plate of food, you circle up with cabin mates and other friends on the kickball field lawn and enjoy your meal. Perhaps you get up to catch a Frisbee or to braid someone’s hair, some girls like to bring their book and just chill as the sun dips down behind the tennis courts and the Den in the western sky. Often a pick up game of basketball or tag, cartwheels and playing with the youngest of the staff children is part of the scene.

Cookouts have been a Runoia weekend tradition since the 1960s when the Cobbs took the reins and Betty Cobb organized the camp menus. We love tradition and we love to carry it forward. Cookouts are a mainstay at Runoia and they are here to stay!

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend, thanks to all the United States troops who have served and protected our country – we will remember you in celebration of Memorial Day and fire up our grills! To all Runoia readers: whether you are grilling burgers or portabella caps – enjoy your cookout!

Preparations and anticipation at Camp Runoia

Posted on May 17, 2017 by Alex

The weeks leading up to the summer camp season are always a little frantic. May is a month full of preparation and anticipation. A whole years’ worth of work is rapidly coming to fruition. The result will be the June arrival of staff and campers to the shores of Great Pond for their amazing summer camp season. What was once just a concept is rapidly becoming a reality. Preparations for the 2017 summer sleep away camp season are definitely in full swing here at Camp Runoia.

There is the sudden leap into spring here in Maine which generates plenty of outdoor work. There are sticks that need picking up, grass that needs mowing, flowers that need planting, docks to put in, a beach that requires raking and a myriad of other tasks that need doing right now! Cleaning up the winter detritus and getting our campus looking beautiful is a high priority. The longer days allow for more outdoor work and are a great distraction from the office!

I think Camp Runoia probably has it’s own UPS warehouse!

The UPS truck is a regular visitor to the Camp Runoia office with daily drops of packages filled with the needed supplies to make the camp program run smoothly. Soon the food service trucks will be rolling in as we get our kitchen opened up and fully stocked and let’s not forget the oil truck and maybe even the septic guy getting their jobs done before camp opens.

At this time of year the names on the shack and staff lists take on more personality as we learn more about our girls and counselors and their hopes and dreams for their summer. Parents are sharing medical information, travel plans, concerns and excitement for the sleep-away experience. Staff are making travel plans, getting certifications completed and wrapping up their home lives to free up their summer so that they can be completely present at camp. Penpal letters will be going out soon so that new campers will feel a stronger connection to their new summer family.

The phone never seems to stop ringing, it’s either the leadership team calling to run something by each other, a parent calling to check on the status of their forms or share a concern or maybe a local young person calling about a kitchen job. We love talking to people and sharing our excitement for the opening of camp. New parents read here – the ACA has lot of great articles to help you mentally and physically prepare for your daughters first sleep away camp experience.

We love that our days are filled to the brim and each brings us one step closer to the moment we are looking forward to the most. When we pass through the Runoia gate and get to be ‘home’ for the summer in the place that we all adore surrounded by a community that supports and sustains each and every member.

Bring it on summer of 2017 we will be ready!

Passing through the Runoia gate into the summer of a lifetime!

Letter Writing at camp Runoia

Posted on May 3, 2017 by Alex

The lost art of letter writing is found at Camp Runoia

For many people a letter or card written by hand and sent through the post is a rare treat to receive. There is incredible value in the sending and receiving of letters to and from Camp. Although modern alternatives may have crept into our regular everyday lives and mail has now often been replaced by type or text, at camp the options are much more limited and therefore pen and paper is the go to form of communication.

Some letters from camp are short and oh so sweet!

A hand written letter, postcard or note-card shows a commitment and acknowledges that a person has taken the time and resources to show how much you are valued. A paper note can be stored under a pillow, treasured and reread over and over. They don’t require an instant or speedy response or even any response at all, they can be savored and relished. Camp Runoia parents often tell us years later that they still have those letters from camp as treasured memories of their daughters developing independence.

Content is often deeper and more profound in a letter than it is in a hurriedly typed email or an even shorter text message. There is not room for emoticons in a pen and paper note, real feelings are expressed carefully using vocabulary that often never appears in type,

A note can communicate messages that may be difficult to address in person or may be impossible if the distance covered is great. The recipient sits with the content without an immediate verbal response needed.

At Camp Runoia we value the time old tradition of hand writing notes. People in our community receive ‘real’ mail long before our campers even arrive to the shores of Great Pond. We send welcome notes, Birthday postcards and of course penpal letters for new campers all before June. Parents, family members and friends continue to send postal mail during the summer season and while a one way email service is now available some girls still get stacks of ‘real mail’ every day. Our campers reciprocate those letters filled with love and news from home. Rest hour is often spent filling up stationary and notecards with tales of camp adventures, new friends, how the food is and what EP’s have been a blast.

The Belgrade Lakes Post Office manages the Camp Runoia mail

The Belgrade Lakes Post Office is near and dear to our hearts and trips to visit can sometimes even be won as EP prizes. The 04918 zip code is imprinted on our hearts. We are encouraging Runoia Girls to build real life communication skills.

Cultural exchange – camp provides a global perspective

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Alex

Castles and conversation

We spent April vacation across the Pond with my family in the UK. It is always a great opportunity for my kids to spend time in the places where I grew up and to experience living in a completely different culture. Though it is only for short while we embrace the immersion learning that it provides. While we may speak the same language all be it with different accents and sometimes even vocabulary there is something distinctly British about being in the UK. I have spent nearly as many years living in Maine as I spent growing up in England so a reminiscent return home always reminds me of the cultural differences that a common language cannot erase. Our trip was filled with a wide variety of experiences from brick house and castles to heritage tours with plenty of green fields and countryside in between.

The British Isles compacts a whole load of varied cultural experiences into one very small place. On the flight from Dublin I was challenged to understand my Irish seat mates, my cousins are Scottish and we also traveled to Wales which while only a short car ride seemed like a whole new world. Colloquialisms and variant vocabulary use kept my kids entertained and grilling their similarly aged cousins about ‘what do you call that?’

At Camp Runoia we relish the opportunity to spend a few weeks living together and sharing our days with friends from around the country and the world. Cultural diversity provides us all with an opportunity to connect with people from places which may be very different to our own home. At Camp Runoia we typically hire a number of counselors from European countries who are part of the J1 visa ‘cultural exchange program’ the goal being for them to experience a traditional American summer camp while sharing their language, culture and traditions.

Sharing national anthems on the 4th of July at Camp Runoia.

Our campers come from a variety of countries outside of the US including traditionally Mexico, Spain and France and in more recent years even as far away as China and Vietnam. Bringing the world to camp helps broaden our vision, embrace new friends and then often gives us the opportunity and courage to expand our own horizons. We will be camp friends for always no matter the geographic location or language barriers.

Maine hunts for spring

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Alex

Patience is apparently a virtue of which Mainers require an excessive amount. Spring while allegedly here on the calendar has yet to truly arrive in person.

I write on a day when once again snowflakes are falling from the sky and the ground is still covered in a good amount of the white stuff. The lakes are still frozen and while there are signs that spring is on the way it still seems like weeks until the grass will be green and the leaves are on the tress.

March came in and went out like a lion this year and it will be April snow showers that hopefully bring May or perhaps they will be June flowers.

While it would be easy to complain the general feeling is one of anticipation and even excitement. There are pussy willows to be spotted along the sides of the roads. Those days when the temperature’s get over 40 seem balmy and call for picnics on the porch and even shorts! The days are longer and there are many more birds singing in the trees and geese flying back overhead this time on their way north. Many a bet is being placed on when the ice will be out on local lakes and generally people are upbeat and hopeful for the new season ahead.

Every day at our house there is talk of camp. How many weeks to go? Will the lake warm up quickly? When can we open up our camp house? Who needs new uniform ordering? Is school almost over?

We cannot wait to see all of our Camp Runoia family and reconnect and embrace the new people that will be joining us. One of the great things about spring in Maine is how quickly it turns into summer; we just have to make it through mud season first!

See you in June!

Runoia guinea pigs life after camp

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Alex

Cream Puff and Mount Skittlemore the Camp Runoia guinea pigs were feeling a little jealous that the chickens had their 15 seconds of fame on the Runoia blog so here is their moment of stardom.

Life outside of Camp Runoia is fairly entertaining for everyone’s favorite ‘farm’ pets. They have a large cage in the living room (‘but mum it’s too cold in the mudroom’!) at the Bolduc-Jacksons so are generally the center of attention. Most of their day is spent eating – who knew that 2 such small creatures could eat so much!? Breakfast is lettuce and leafy greens often with some strawberry tops thrown in, lunch is a delightful blend of guinea pig pellets and all day long the hay buffet is open. There are always plenty of treats too, their favorites are fresh fruits and veggies but they will happily eat the commercial snacks.

A change from the summer is that their winter bedding is made of fleece and old towels rather than sawdust and shavings. It seems to keep them warmer and drier but still needs changing every couple of days. It helps with waste reduction too as it can just be throw into the wash.

Did you know that we have an entire Runoia Pinterest board dedicated to interesting articles about guinea pig care. There are even guinea pig birthday cake ideas for those dedicated cavy lovers.

The farm and garden program at Camp Runoia provides campers with the opportunity to experience animal care, grow organic food and learn about farm to table principles. Many girls enjoy the responsibilities of growing things and taking care of the pets. We hope that Camp Runoia campers will maximize all of the opportunities that activities at camp have to offer. Getting to snuggle a guinea pig is certainly a perk.

Cream Puff and Mount Skittlemore look forward to seeing you all back at camp and getting lots of snuggles and snacks from the Runoia vegetable garden.

Sleep away Camp in Maine – ‘the way life should be’.

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Alex

This past summer a photo journalist from Maine Magazine spent some time with our alumnae at Runoia’s 110th reunion. It was a bit of a wild and windy day for August but the Camp Runoia warmth shone through. The reporter was amazed that women of all ages had traveled from near and in some cases very far to join together to celebrate their Maine sleep away camp experiences. For many the time they had spent as a child at camp had been a very long time ago yet the memories and friendships made had truly lasted a lifetime.

It is very exciting for us to be featured in the camp issue of the magazine and to get the front cover cameo! How perfect to see alums flicking through the log books that record a hundred years of our sleep away camp history. Runoia in 2017 still maintains the spirit and some of the activities that girls participated in back in 1907. We are proud of our heritage, history and traditions.

The passion that these women have for Runoia was apparent, they dove into the chilly waters of Great Pond to swim to Oak Island in order to raise money for the scholarship program, sang songs with gusto and shared memories and stories from their childhoods. Many brought along their family members to share the experience and enjoyed playing and laughing together and sharing meals in the dining hall.

Maine is the perfect place to spend time in the summer, the clear cool lake, usually bright sunny days and nights filled with the cries of the loons make it a relaxing getaway. Camp still provides girls from many different places the chance to grow and learn together. They build long lasting relationships, have a chance to embrace the natural world and be a part of something bigger than themselves.