Good Morning Runoia Families and Friends! We are in the middle of a string of beautiful Fine Maine Days. The sun and birds wake us up early, and the breeze on our backs gives us a much needed cooling off, as if the Earth knows that we need it.
Last Thursday we celebrated the Fourth of July— and a true celebration it was. Decked out from head to toe in red white and blue gear, our Rock Star Staff awoke their campers with excited commotion. As the girls rubbed their eyes and made their way to their cabin porches, they were greeted by our equestrian staff on horses cantering by their cabins yelling “The British are Coming!”, per Runoia tradition. Later at Assembly, we honored each country represented with us here at Runoia this summer, including Argentina, Canada, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Australia, Nigeria, Mexico, England, and Poland.
The rest of the day was a whirlwind of activities between our “British” and “American” teams, from Water Balloon Catch and Spaghetti-Marshmallow-Tower-Building, to an entire camp-wide relay race in the afternoon. The day ended with a reflective Campfire at the Waterfront, where we bonded with songs and skits surrounding the theme of “Unity”. The entirety of the day, planned and executed by our amazing CIT’s, was incredible.
The rest of the week has been a solid stream of daytime and evening programming- with our campers growing and learning and being excited to try new things. We also welcomed our Harmony Land Campers this week, and they are all settling nicely into their cabin and daily routine.
Later on in the week we hosted a Horse Show here at Runoia, in which we had some visitors from Camp Matoaka and Camp Mataponi come for a friendly riding competition. Our girls were stellar in performance as well as in sportsmanship, making all of us staff members beam with pride. In addition to the horse show, some of our girls travelled to Camp Caribou, where they competed in a riflery competition and represented Camp Runoia fantastically.
As of today we only have seven days left of First Session, which seems unreal, but it’s definitely true that time flies when we’re having fun. This week we will be encouraging the girls to really soak in and enjoy this last week of camp before we must say goodbye. We as staff members get a front row seat to the joy, the learning, the growing, the silliness, and the abounding laughter from our Runoia Gals every day, and we, too, are becoming better people for it.
The coming week holds in store our Talent Show, Log Night, Awards, and Graduation. We are incredibly excited to savor every happy moment with our campers this week— making memories that will surely last a lifetime.
Until Next Week!
By Nina Budeiri
