amazing summers Archives - Page 14 of 21

The Highlight of My Year

Posted on November 16, 2016November 16, 2016 by Pam Cobb

I have a good life. I travel, meet interesting people and my job is never boring. Last summer I spent a weekend at Camp Runoia, celebrating its 110th anniversary. Now THAT was the highlight of my year and I know now, that one day I will be a camp counselor again.

I spent twelve summers of my formative at Camp Runoia in Belgrade Lakes. In those days, the program was eight weeks, camp was like a bigger and more diverse version of my own family and I loved every minute of it. It is where I understood the real meaning of living with other people, discovered lasting friendships and the value of respect. So, a whole weekend with a group of women whom had been my role models, my teammates and my friends growing up was a treat.

To the observing eyes, in this case those of my husband, the years had not taken their toll on our enthusiasm for our camping days. But most importantly, there was an invisible bond that time had left unbroken. No words needed. We knew that we could count on one another at any given time just like we used to when the lake got rough on a long canoeing trip or on the quest for a sympathetic ear.

What I realized going back to camp after so many years was that the happiness I felt and the sense of belonging driving through the Runoia gate, was just as strong as it had been 30 years ago, it was like coming home. So it came as no surprise to my husband when I told him we would be stopping by the real estate office in Belgrade Lakes on our journey back.

Runoia Alumna and Guest Blogger, Marie-Claude Francoeur

That’s me in the wetsuit… I had a much better time on the swim to Oak Island (and back) than this picture portrays!

Life Long Skills – Winners and Losers Learn to Work Together at Camp Runoia

Posted on November 9, 2016November 9, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Camp Runoia has a tradition of the losing team cheering the team who wins. It’s almost a game to see who can cheer first. Who thinks of others before themselves? Who praises a job well done? And who accepts defeat with humble gratitude to all the players who helped the team get as far as they could? The value of children learning how to lose graciously or win with good sportsmanship builds life long skills.

Accepting the outcome of a swim race, an official’s call on the softball field or the fact that the wind wasn’t blowing enough to have a sailing race at all, is part of managing disappointment. Celebrating victory and a job well done is also part of daily life at camp. Placing in a horse show or not placing in the top six spots and learning how to ask your friend who is staring down defeat, “how did you ride today? Were you happy with your ride” rather than focus on “did you get a blue ribbon”. The examples go on and on… Cheering on someone else’s success for getting up on water skis when you are still struggling. Learning how to frame a win or a loss or a success or defeat is practiced at camp every day.

The ultimate learning experience may be admitting when the Gaga ball hits your foot and you’re out but no one saw it. Ethics is doing the right thing even when no one else is looking. Camp teaches this kind of self-governed morality. Without a doubt, the culture of camp affects who we become in so many ways.

At Runoia, this “win-win, you tried your best, go back out and try again” culture is pervasive beyond field sports. You learn how to humbly congratulate the actor for getting the lead role when you didn’t. You smile and congratulate the artist who gets tops votes for their art piece when yours didn’t get many at all. Perhaps you even study what they did and learn from their success. Your cabin group works together to get the best score in cabin clean up. If someone is not as good as sweeping as you, you help them out, teach them how to do a better job. Better for all.

Making do with what your have or changing and trying harder and doing better the next time is all part of camp outcomes. How fortunate are we to be in a position where this happens day after day for a session or a season and hopefully year after year? Very.

The way Runoia gals cheer the winning team with a “Bobo” or “Kemo” is tradition. We cherish the way Blues and Whites hug each other on our final Cotillion night when the summer scores are revealed and campers find out who won the competition. Again, tradition.

We could all learn a thing or two from the campers and staff who play together well. Building life long skills through the camp experience is more than just fun and games on a lake in Maine. _dsc3192

Camp Runoia’s Pioneering Women

Posted on November 2, 2016November 7, 2016 by Alex

How grateful we are that our Camp Runoia founders were brave women who dared to venture out of their comfort zones. Pioneers of their time they chose to take a path that not many women had walked and left us a great legacy of strength and fortitude.

Early residential summer camps were primarily established to provide an opportunity for children from urban areas to be away from the cities and have an experience in nature. Initially it was boys who were provided with this opportunity but it wasn’t long before girls’ camps opened alongside them. It was strongly believed that living away from the conveniences of home in the ‘wilderness’ would build character and strong moral values. Perhaps unique in Runoia’s case was that women were our primary founders.

The 1907 world that Miss Weiser and Miss Pond lived in seems a million lifetimes away from the lives that our campers lead today.

Can you imagine that in 1907…

Women’s life expectancy was around 50

English suffragettes stormed British Parliament and many were arrested

Julia Ward Howe was the first woman elected to National Institute of Arts & Letters

Theodore Roosevelt was president

The passenger liner RMS Lusitania made its maiden voyage from England to NYC

Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne were born

Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel prize for literature

Good Housekeeping magazine cost $1 for an annual subscription

Trade unions were established

Oklahoma become the 46^th state

It is amazing that the values promoted by residential summer camps in 1907 are the same as they are in 2017

Camp helps build self-confidence and self-esteem

Camp is a safe environment

Camp is a place to build social skills and make friends

We hope that Camp Runoia will continue to provide girls with the opportunity to bravely follow in the footsteps of the pioneering women who came before us. We hope that we may all have strong female role models and be them too.

Majors and Minors at Camp Runoia –what’s the rhyme and reason?

Posted on October 31, 2016November 2, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Camp is unplugged. Camp is spontaneous. Camp involves free play. Why is there a daily schedule?

Majors – picked weekly, allow campers to focus on one activity five times in a week. For long term projects (baskets, stained glass, the camp play) it allows time in the week to accomplish the project. More importantly, a major allows depth of knowledge in an activity (archery, riding, sailing, windsurfing), consistent training and a commitment to learn and develop. Campers attending for one session will have three majors in their camp summer. Swimming lessons are like a major in that they happen the same activity period every day. In a typical week, campers have 4-5 swimming lessons depending on trips and weather. The depth of both majors and swimming lessons build life long skills.

Tag up! Our minors are activities in the other-than-major activity periods that campers get the chance to pick and change every day. Campers are called to the tag board and get to choose from a number of activities every day. Since you can’t pick the same activity twice in a day, a camper gets to try a variety of different activities in any given day or week at camp. From art to the water sports to land sports to camp craft skills, climbing tower or an improv class – life is full and exciting during camp. So much to learn and try and do.

As a Runoia camper, you get to specialize in three majors plus do about 45-50 minors in a summer! So much choice – so much to do! You’d better come back at least a few summers so you can do it all. And with all the friends you’ll make and the beauty of the campus and the lake, you’ll absolutely want to return summer after summer.

Routines and schedules

Posted on September 7, 2016October 18, 2016 by Alex

One of the greatest things I love about being at Camp Runoia all summer long is the routine and schedule! You never have to worry about when or what you are going to eat, laundry goes out and comes back right when you expect it to, you know when to get up and when to go to bed and the ringing of the bell dictates everything in between.

The other really awesome thing about camp when you are the family manager and chauffeur is that no one needs to go anywhere! Sleep away camp gets all of your needs met in one place. Everyone is quite happy and busy, there are no practices or play dates to squeeze in or Birthday parties at the same time in two different directions or grocery shopping to be done. It is a formal schedule but not a hectic one. Within the routine and structure at camp there is also plenty of time to take a minute to enjoy someone’s company or stop and pick some blueberries.

Don’t get me wrong I have enjoyed the last few weeks of summer, lazing around in PJ’s eating whatever, whenever and being on the relaxed plan for what to do when. I am now ready to embrace the Fall with the new sometimes hectic schedules, weekend adventures in the beautiful foliage and a routine all of its own. The days are getting shorter and the nights are definitely chillier but I’m sure before I know it we will be back on Runoia time again.

Runoia Celebrates 110 Summers in Style!

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

In the middle of August Camp Runoia hosted its 110th reunion. Some 150 women young and old came from far and near and wallowed in the warmth of friendships and happy memories.

Runoia Gals from Far and Near Returned for the 110th Reunion

I’ve been thinking about camp, and the weekend, and camp, and friends, and camp…. I thought about how so many of us keep coming back, sometimes after years of absence, but still we come….and I thought about what it is that makes this happen. I realize it’s because Runoia really is “home” to people. Not home like where our parents live, but home in the sense that it’s where we feel safe, where we can be ourselves without pretense, where we are accepted for who we are and we get to shed our veneers and tear down our walls, it’s where we can laugh and cry with enthusiasm and without fear of judgement. It’s where we feel alive and secure and joyful.

The Camp Runoia Alumnae Organization raised $123,000 for the Betty Cobb Campership Fund in honor of this event. I hope people will continue to give generously forever onward so that lots of young girls who couldn’t otherwise afford it will be able to know these feelings years from now when they come back for Reunions.

From Jody Sataloff, Past President of the CRAO and many other amazing accomplishments!

Run, Swim, Jump, Kick at Runoia

Posted on August 8, 2016October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

It’s Sports Week! What some camps call Color War, Runoia calls Sports Week. The short story is we have kicked, run, raced, swum, jumped, trotted, shot arrows, competed, played hard and played like a girl!

On top of it, we have had birthday parties, Evening Programs of “Create Your Own Country”, Pillow Football, Birthday Bash, Build A Boat to Float Contest, Talent Show, Runoia Caberet, Graduation Dinner and a Camp Fire with the theme of What Camp Friendships Mean to You.

Here are some of the pictures to tell the story:

The Epic Oak Island Swim

Blue and White Team Captains Second Session

The Pine Tree in the Back Shows it's a Maine Peach! — The Pine Tree in the Back Shows it’s a Maine Peach!

Coco Crisp Enjoys his 10th Summer at Runoia and Gets His Own Blanket

We hope to see you next year!

The Runoia Team

Maintaining standards in residential camping

Posted on August 6, 2016October 18, 2016 by Alex

American Camp Association Accreditation

This week was our American Camp Association Accreditation visit which after much preparation went off without a hitch. It is a peer review by other camp directors to ensure that we are maintaining the highest standards of health and safety in the camping industry. Did you know that Camp Runoia has been an accredited ACA camp since 1960 and that we continuously run our programs to the industry standards that are provided?

“The American Camp Association is the only nationwide organization that accredits children’s camps. The ACA Accreditation process is a voluntary commitment by camps to the highest standards of health, safety, and program quality.

One purpose of the ACA Accreditation program is to educate camp owners and directors in the administration of key aspects of camp operation, particularly those related to program quality and the health and safety of campers and staff. The standards establish guidelines for needed policies, procedures, and practices. The camp is then responsible for the ongoing implementation of the policies.” (From ACANE)

At Camp Runoia we are incredibly proud to be able to provide a high quality, residential camp experience for our campers and employee’s. Safety first!

Tell your friends and family about the sleep away opportunity that we provide.

Enrollment for 2017 will be opening soon and new camper spaces will be in high demand!

Maine living at Camp Runoia

Posted on July 22, 2016October 18, 2016 by Alex

Fine Maine Days

Our second session here at Camp Runoia has started off splendidly. The first session girls all made it home safely and our new arrivals are fully settled in. We have girls from so many different places. Our English campers finally got out of school and flew on over, we have an alumnae daughter from Japan and also girls from as far away as Hong Kong and Vietnam. The continental US is well represented from CA girls to those from FL and a whole heap from our great state of Maine.

Our days have been glorious. Warm and sunny although sometimes a little windy for skiing so some of the girls have been enjoying sneaking out a little early to get out on Great Pond before breakfast. There have been no complaints about waking up before the bell. There is something magical about getting up before everyone else and enjoying the solitude on the lake.

Our second session of Harmony Land Camp for our youngest campers is half way finished. They’ve been enjoying all the camp activities and having fun times with their counselors. We hope they will return next summer!

Trips have already gone out and returned with tales of adventure and s’mores around the campfire. Projects have been started, we are growing food, shooting at targets, climbing the wall, riding horses, are out in boats and generally busy as we can be all the way through our fun and entertaining EP’s. There is much anticipation for the new campers picking their blue and white teams this weekend and lots of speculation about how captain elections will turn out. We are filling our days to the max and enjoy falling asleep to the sounds of the loons after long and productive days

It is always a “Fine Maine Day’ for building life skills.

Keep the letters coming our campers love to get mail from family and friends.

Sending you our love from Great Pond,

Aionur

Beginnings and endings

Posted on July 11, 2016October 18, 2016 by Alex

Endings and new beginnings

It is amazing how much we cram into a week at camp! What a diversity of experiences there have been in the past few days. Even the weather has kept us on or toes with moderate winds to dead calm and baking sun to a cool rainy day. We have had new beginnings every day and very happy endings.

For EP we have been energetic at the scavenger hunt and chilled out at campfire, really tacky during everyone’s favorite ‘Ms Tacky Runoia’ and talented at our very own Runoia’s got talent’s show the Voice and USA gymnastics team had better watch out!

Team captains were chosen with the ‘A’ team of Ally and Anna leading the Whites and Z and Eliza managing the Blues. All of the girls that chose to run for the position gave great speeches at assembly and were commended for having the courage to ‘give it a go.’ Soccer games were already played with many more activities to compete in this coming week.

We have seen so many firsts as girls tried new things, met new people and adventured far and wide and we are beginning to see some of the lasts for our oldest campers. Painting their boards to put up in the boat house was bitter sweet.

Perhaps the most meaningful moment of the week was our youngest and newest group of campers the ‘Harmony Land Camp’ girls sharing their love with the graduating senior village girls. It was the first Runoia campfire for the HLC girls and the last as campers for our graduates. A very meaningful moment as traditions are passed along and legacies left to the next generation. Harmony Land Camp is our new short session taster program for 7 and 8 year old girls and it is already a big hit.

We will make the most of our last 5 days of first session and are already anticipating the ‘see you next summer’ goodbyes as we hug those we now call our ‘summer sisters.’

See you soon!

Aionur