Update from Camp Harmonyville May 27, 2020

Posted on May 27, 2020June 4, 2020 by Pam Cobb

On Tuesday we announced we are opening for a special session this summer “Camp Runoia Harmonyville”, July 18 – August 9. More details on the program can be found on our Camp More Than Ever announcement.

We are sad to miss some of our campers whom for individual family needs, schedules and situations, they are not able to come to camp. We rejoice in the group who can gather by Great Pond this summer to carry the torch of the 114^th season. We made the decision to open with a lot of thought and careful and systematic planning. It will indeed be an “other than” camp session but also a unique and never-to-be-forgotten Runoia season. Our key leaders in camp are ready to do everything to make Harmonyville a positive experience: our counselors are all being re-interviewed by Alex to be sure they are up for the challenges that lie ahead. Those who are “in” are in 100% for your children.

On Tuesday night we were joined by our volunteer medical doctors, Dr. Susan Lasky and Dr. Susan Weaver for a presentation about COVID-19 and camp. Please email pam@runoia.com to get the slides. Many parents and staff found their presentation helpful and reassuring. They start by saying, “We can’t tell you what to do and we can’t guarantee camp to be COVID free.” They end by saying, “We are sending our daughters to camp because…” One of the two MDs will be in residence all session as they are each volunteering two weeks of their schedules to live at camp with us.

Time is moving at the speed of light for us. We feel like we are in the midst of a camp summer when the time warp is active.

We have altered some of our initial announcements about camp and we apologize as many families made decisions based on the information we provided at the time. We are doing the best we can with what we have and what we have changes frequently. This week, we feel guidelines are stabilizing and we are able to better plan.

What is different:

“Households and neighborhoods”. If you missed the Update from Camp May 20, please be sure to read it thoroughly. It is a transparent layout of Harmonyville.
Program will be modified; we will add more activities as we roll out the phases.
We cannot take individual requests for cabins or beds
Cabin groups will be “households” and households will do everything together for the first phase of camp. Phase two opens up into neighborhoods (think Junior End, Senior End, SVOHCO)
Neighborhoods will take shifts in the dining hall,
Neighborhoods will have their own socially distant assemblies and campfires.
All Camp gatherings will happen outside with social distancing between households.
Enrollment and Rates: The enrollment link is here.
Harmonyville tuition is $7500. Payment in full is due by June 15. Any payments you made toward your original session will be rolled over to Harmonyville tuition.
Refund: We are taking big, albeit calculated, risk to open camp this summer and we realize you are taking a huge, albeit calculated, risk as well. We have CHANGED our refund policy: In case of cancellation before July 1 you may roll over the tuition paid to 2021 or upon request you will be reimbursed the tuition in installment payments, less the non-refundable deposit which, for this year only, is transferable to 2021. If you cancel on or after July 1, you may roll over your tuition to 2021, however the $1000 deposit is non-refundable.

What is the Same:

Alex and I are here at camp working with our team and vow to create and run the best summer of camp.
Campers will be unplugged and interacting with campers in their household in a very normal way
Great Pond is clear and refreshing
Our riding program will be in full swing
Many familiar faces will be at camp – even if you are new to camp, camp will feel friendly
As usual, there will be new campers to greet
The improvements around camp done in the fall for 2020 will be valued more than ever: addition to the Health Cabin and refinishing of all the cabin floors through cabins 1 – 7!
We will, as usual, have an unforgettable summer in 2020
We are already counting the days until 2021!

That sums up our mid-week update from camp for now. Please contact us with any questions.

Wadas,

Pam – For the A-Team

Have Questions? Ask the Doctors – Meeting tonight about Harmonyville

Posted on May 26, 2020May 26, 2020 by Pam Cobb

Dear Runoia Families, May 26, 2020

We are writing our families both those who have suspended returning to camp this summer and those who are signing up for Camp Runoia Harmonyville to check in from camp.

Our hearts go out to the families who have canceled, and we respect your decision. Each family has unique, individual and personal reasons for suspending. We’ve received many heartfelt messages about your appreciation for the process and your excitement about 2021. Thank you. We are all looking forward to a sense of normal.

We feel is our responsibility to offer camp for children and give them something to hold onto in these isolating times. For those of you who have embraced Harmonyville, Let’s Go! We are opening July 18.

We have a meeting tonight with our two Medical Doctors: Dr. Susan Lasky and Dr. Susan Weaver. Alex and I will also be on the Zoom with them and follow up with general camp announcements.

The Zoom will start at 5 pm tonight, Tuesday. We will do a repeat Zoom call at 6 pm. The call will be less than 40 minutes. Our doctors have a presentation to share and then will be available for questions. After 15-20 minutes of medical info, Alex and I will move on to general camp information about “households & neighborhoods”, program, transportation to and from camp and other general questions. The Zoom link is below.

We have not yet finalized a plan for Graduating Seniors who have canceled – so please save those questions for when we announce the SV plan. We will provide a time in the next year for graduating girls to come together and celebrate and share the traditions of graduation.

For families who felt the deadline to decide about camp last weekend was too rushed, you may find the Zoom call tonight helpful in your decision-making process. If you can’t make the call, we can find a time to connect. Please reach out to us.

We hope to see you online tonight.

Sending our love from Great Pond,

Pam and Alex

Need the zoom link? Email pam@runoia.com

Crumbs on the carpet – a lesson in flexibility

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Alex

At my house you leave your shoes in the mud room when you come in and there is never, ever food upstairs! It was the way it was in my childhood home and the way my kids have always known it to be. Until now! While we are still managing to leave the muddy, spring boots in the mudroom there are now crumbs on my upstairs carpets.

As bedrooms have become classrooms, office space, choir rehearsal rooms, places to ‘hang out’ with friends or a place to gain a tiny piece of solitude, so the snacks have migrated upstairs. The myriad of other uses the upstairs now has means that food has apparently gone where the people are. Online school includes BYO homeroom lunch, snack times and the apparent constant need to have endless beverages all day long. There are now crumbs, wrappers and tea cups in places they have never ventured before.

We have had to change and modify our spaces, our practices and everything about our daily living to be able to successfully navigate working and schooling from home. Every day is a new adventure in adaptation and flexibility.

How grateful we are to our amazing Runoia camp staff who have dug right in and figured out some creative and interesting ways to engage our campers who are missing their after school activities. Many of these staff are teachers by day and are navigating their own virtual or online school days and then come home to drum up fabulous camp fun. Jen has shifted from all things horses to all things Runoia Youtube, Barb is a super hero ukulele player trading a bathing suit for other costumes and numerous other staff are making videos, hosting EP, singing songs at campfire and prepping talents for this week’s talent show. We are so grateful for their willingness to be flexible, adaptive and to show up and show off their incredible skill sets.

We know that it’s hard to imagine what the future may bring or understand how tomorrow may look different than today. We will keep adapting, changing and being flexible. We will use our life skills to move forward and we will keep sharing our talents with our camp family.

The great thing about crumbs on the carpet is that they vacuum up pretty easily!

Olivia’s First Summer at Runoia

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Pam Cobb

Guest blogger, Lisa Siegel

Olivia’s first summer at Runoia was the year she turned 10. I said goodbye to her on a rainy morning as she sat on her bunk waiting for the other campers to arrive. Olivia returned to Runoia for 8 summers.

The gift of summer camp was the best gift we could have given our daughter. She gained a sense of sisterhood, community and empowerment. The supportive, inclusive environment at Runoia gave Olivia an extended family that lasted far beyond summers and continues in her life as a young adult. She was encouraged to challenge herself and reach goals of becoming a competent sailor, an accomplished backpacker, hiker and a certified Junior Maine Guide.

Olivia’s love for the outdoors impacted many of her past and current choices including attending college in Maine (Colby College) where she became a COOT leader (Colby Outdoor Orientation), avid skier and hiker.

Olivia’s summers at Runoia have no doubt helped shape the woman she has become. She does not shy away from challenges. She had the confidence to move across the country after college to start a career. She continues to backpack, hike and ski and use the skills she learned at camp.

I was fortunate to experience the most memorable hike of my lifetime before Olivia moved out west; she encouraged me to get up at 2:45 am to hike up Cadillac Mountain to witness the sunrise! She had hiked Cadillac Mountain for sunrise as a camper and she wanted me to have the same awe-inspiring experience. How lucky I am to have shared this with my daughter prior to her move.

Runoia will always have a special place in our hearts.

Raising pigs at Camp Runoia?

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Alex

At the end of last week I was lucky enough to attend a seminar about raising pigs. Offered by the local UMaine cooperative extension and presented by a professor with a PhD in swine husbandry it was an educational and engaging couple of hours. Knowing very little about pigs or what it may take to care for them I went in with an open mind ready to learn

Curious to see if a couple of pigs would be a good addition to Camp Runoia’s small organic farm and garden program, I was interested to learn more about if overnight camp could be a good home for a few hogs. Our farm and garden program has been operational now for a good number of years and is a popular tag up choice. For campers who have little access to gardens or to small livestock it is a fantastic, fun, learning opportunity. The program includes growing vegetables for our camp kitchen, maintaining the flower gardens and taking care of the animals. Campers are eager to hang out with the goats, feed the chickens and play with the bunny.

As other local camps have small farms too and there has been much talk about pigs, we were curious if they would be a good expansion for us. The seminar quickly answered a lot of questions and rapidly brought on the realization that much of what we assumed about keeping pigs was more myth based than scientifically factual! We were hoping a couple of pigs would significantly reduce our food scrap waste in the dumpster but it turns out they really can’t eat a lot of table scraps and what they do eat needs to be pretty well sorted. It is very hard to get the nutrition that they need to grow from ‘waste products.’ Another compounding factor was the time it takes to raise pigs until they are ready for butchering. We were hopeful that three months at camp would be enough but really they need about six months to be ready for eating. This brought me to the third factor that emotionally it would be pretty hard to send our pigs well loved camp pigs off to market!

After two hours of lecture, asking some good questions and learning so much interesting information it really was easy to determine that the only pig at Runoia this summer will be out Guinea pig ‘Cream Puff’. It was great to learn so much about something that I knew so little about and also feel confident in making the right decision based on facts. Putting life skills into action.

We LOVE Camp Runoia

Posted on February 11, 2020 by Alex

We love Camp Runoia and think that being at sleep away camp in Maine in the summer is even better than Valentines Day!

We wanted to share the 14 reasons that Runoia campers and staff love our camp!

14 reasons to love a summer at Camp Runoia

Great Pond is gorgeous and the perfect place to be in or on

Maine summer weather is pretty near perfect

Campers and staff make friends that last a lifetime

Adults provide a safe and nurturing environment for campers to grow

You get to be your best self

3 delicious meals and snacks a day

You can fall asleep to the sounds of loons on the lake

There are more than 25 activity choices offered everyday

You get 130 ‘summer sisters’

Camp builds lifelong skills

You are immersed in nature

Free time is a great time to hang with friends or take a dip

Having a home away from home on a lake in Maine is the best

114 summers of history and tradition!

The creep of winter at Camp Runoia

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Alex

Winter has started to creep its way into Camp Runoia. The first layer of snow is covering the ground and the edges of the lake are beginning to freeze. Buildings are closed up tight against the weather and all is still and quiet. There is still great beauty in the familiar views it just has a different lens. It is a treat to see places that are not so visible in the summer that now offer us a different perspective of a familiar scene. Particularly down by the lake it is such a dramatic transformation from the bustling days of summer. Trying to describe the differences about camp to a winter visitor is almost impossible and requires a great deal of imagination. How do you explain not just the dramatic change in scenery but also that the atmosphere is entirely different?

As we rapidly head towards the winter solstice and shortest day of the year the daylight hours in Maine seem so few. It is hard not to think of a day in terms of the camp schedule. A frequent lament at this time of year is the fact that it feels like time to be getting into PJ’s when at camp we would just be starting EP!

The long days of summer provide such an opportunity to be engaged and outdoors doing all of the activities that are so much more restricted during the winter months. Residential summer camp is so unique in its ability to allow children and youth a myriad of experiences that are not as readily available in the other times of their lives.

One of the great benefits of a Runoia summer is that campers get so much choice in how they spend their long summer days. They can try new things, focus in on classes they really want to build skills in, take something just as a one off for fun and enjoy such a diversity of experiences that they are never bored. Ending with evening program as the sky starts getting dusky and in the early part of the summer heading to bed before the stars are out make it a full day.

Until summer rolls around again we’ll trade our rackets for skates and our water skis for downhill.

We will be so ready for another season of Camp Runoia summer fun on Great Pond.

Friday night pizza- we love camp food!.

Posted on December 3, 2019 by Alex

As the Holidays roll around and our focus becomes not just on family but also a lot on food, it is a great time to reflect on how camp food plays an important role in the overall experience. Food in general has such significant cultural value, it shapes our days and times with people. At camp we enjoy food together for three meals a day and spend a lot of time talking about our favorite things to eat. Sometimes we may miss things from home and at others we are wondering when some camp favorites are going to be served.

At Thanksgiving dinner you probably ate food that has meaning in your family; grandma’s pumpkin pie made from an age old recipe or that sweet potato bake you have every year without fail. Food not only fills us and gives us a reason to come together with loved ones but its sentimental meaning also truly warms our hearts.

Days at camp are often a blur with not as much definition as you may find in your regular week. It’s often hard to figure out what day of the week it is unless it’s Thursday trip day or a sleepy Sunday. More often than not the days are measured by the food being served. Friday night is always homemade pizza night! Chef and the kitchen crew cook up the usual cheese and pepperoni favorites but there are always also a couple of surprises that you don’t know about until they are served! On Fridays there is always a buzzing excitement around super time for pizza night.

Sunday morning donuts and cinnamon rolls are a staple. Even though it is still sleepy come in your pajamas breakfast there is often a line after the first bell at 8am as campers are keen to dig into the sweet treats.

You may remember the’ green table’ and grill for Saturday night cookout with hotdogs and burgers. The location has changed to be closer the kitchen but there is still the same fare.

Alums will likely remember ‘Sunday Sundaes’ served on the last Sunday at the end of the session, it’s a tradition that is much anticipated and has been around for many years. Congo bars are perhaps the truest Runoia favorite and have been enjoyed throughout the generations. Do any Alums may remember bishops bread?

Our Camp Runoia food is healthy and wholesome and fills not just our bellies but also our hearts. It leaves us with tasty memories of our long summer days

Why is dressing up so much fun?

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Alex

From sleep Sunday morning’s, 4^th of July , evening programs, event days and a myriad of other opportunities we love to get dressed up at camp! The Runoia costume area is loaded with so many opportunities: clothing, hats, shoes, accessories, face paint and endless props. It has been known that campers and staff who are returning to camp and know the ropes also have a tendency to bring copious amounts of additional fun items with them to supplement the camp supplies. You never know what you may need for Ms. Tacky or an end of the week Saturday lunch, themed, table extravaganza.

At camp we are freed of our inhibitions and celebrate the ability to throw on a costume, act a part or just look ridiculous for no apparent reason. We craft adventures, themes and engage with frivolity just because we can and nobody restricts the amount of fun that we can have with our imaginations. What joy there is in creating something out of just an idea or a thought and presenting it to the community where it is always so well received. You would be amazed what we can pull together in a very short amount of time and with limited resources. Adults are as equally enthusiastic to join in, it’s a rare job that you can throw on a silly hat or an evening gown just because it’s Thursday evening!

July 4th wear whatever you want in the red, white and blue!

Our costume department isn’t really anything too fancy and primarily allows us to use just a lot of creativity, think 21^st century skill development here! Saturday end of the week lunches give everyone the opportunity to dress up. It is so engaging to think up a table theme or even just choose a random idea out of the basket and then figure out if everyone has something to wear that will work – even just different colored T-shirts with hand written labels on them can be quickly and easily transformed into a colorful box of crayons.

Event days are always a good time to sport a great costume – Runoia rodeo

We’d love to see what our Runoia girls have come up with for their Halloween costumes, store bought or homemade? tried and true spooky or original and unique? However they choose to dress up we know that they will rock it with confidence and pizazz.

Log Night Penultimate Night

Posted on August 8, 2019August 8, 2019 by Pam Cobb

Amidst thunder and lightning, we had our Log night last night led by Assistant Directors, Barb and Jai. We cozied-up in the Den and heard the culmination of inside jokes, moments of reflection and revelations about the summer of 2019. “Can you imagine 10 American Archers?” “Lost 7 CITs, Found 7 Lifeguards!” and so on.

In other news, 2nd shack hiked to Fairy ring last Friday and slept out waking up to Fairy rocks left for them. They built fairy houses and enjoyed s’mores under the August night skies and Perseid meteor showers. “A shooting star is not a star, it’s not a star at all! A shooting star’s a meteor, headed for a fall!”

Fourth shack had a spectacular trip to Camden Hills hiking The Maiden Cliffs and Mt. Batty. Penobscot Bay and Camden Harbor views at the top make the hike extra special.

Third Shack and all of Senior End headed off to Popham Beach for fun in the surf, protecting their sandwiches from seagulls and building sand castles.

While days were filled w accomplishments and achieving campers, EPs were: MS. TACKEY – a fan favorite!, Birthday Party – celebrating all 9 camper birthdays this session, a sold out show of A Mid Summer’s Night Dream – AKA our very own Shakespeare in the Park, Senior Village’s campfire with a theme of Happy Endings and a back breaking game of Gargoyles!

Blue White games filled our spare moments (Ha!) this week. We had the Oak Island Swim, Swim Races, soccer, kickball, softball games and a

There is a feeling of glee in camp. Plaques have been posted by Senior Village campers, formal photos were taken memorializing our summer together, celebrations of just about every kind have been going on. It’s a bittersweet time of year: the anticipation of seeing family mixed with saying “see you later” to our summer family.

Until next year! Aionur