Tag: best camp in Maine

5 year Camp Runoia blankets

Posted on by Alex

 

Nights in Maine are very chilly, already there is a decent amount of snow on the ground and the dark settles in early. Evenings are perfect for a board game or cuddling up on the couch with a good book. Having the right blanket to snuggle up with is a crucial accessory. There are so many around to choose from,  a multitude of soft and fluffy ones, the scratchy woolen one to be avoided and the most popular recent addition a cozy sherpa fleece.

My favorite is my Runoia 5 year blanket, it’s a decent fleece, medium weight and a little old these days but it carries with it the warmth of summer. Amazing that a blanket can hold the memories of years on Great Pond.  The lifetime friendships, the hundreds of girls,  the joys and laughter all wrapped up in Runoia blue. 

Getting your 5 year blanket is a big deal for campers and staff, it represents your commitment to the place you have called your summer home, it’s an achievement, a milestone and a celebration. They are much anticipated and presented at cotillion on the last night of the season. You also get to be in the log photos for 5 years or more. You can’t purchase them and you only get one so need to take care of it reverently.

New 5 years in 2020
5 years or more in 2020

More than that achievement though it is the reminder of your summers you when you are not at camp. The blanket stays with you when you are at home in the winter or have long moved on from the shores of Great Pond. It elicits your Runoia a fond reminder of those long summer days. Maybe it gets pushed to the back of a closet for a while, or ends up in your dorm room at college. Perhaps it’s turns up in a carefully shipped package from your childhood home to you when you start your own life in a new place. Could be the dog steals it to curl up on or a younger sibling uses it for fort building. As time goes on it may get a little wash worn or frayed around the edges but it still has a warmth that only Runoia can provide. Alumnae still talk about their blankets and bring them back when they return as staff or attend a reunion.

We hope that there will be many more Runoia blankets to hand out. Celebrating 5 years at Runoia is so much more than receiving your camp blanket. We want all of our summer family to feel the warmth and love of camp the whole year through.

JMG – A college application essay topic

Posted on by Alex

The Junior Maine Guide (JMG) program has been a mainstay at Camp Runoia for decades. It provides older campers with the opportunity to participate in a Maine State, organized youth program that develops and tests their wilderness skills. It is a rigorous program that can take a couple of years to accomplish. Camp develops all kinds of life skills and becoming a  JMG is a huge achievement but the process also has great value.

This weeks guest blog is Lilly Grace’s college application essay that focused on her time working towards becoming a JMG.

Common App Main Essay by Lilly Grace
To the average person, building a roaring fire with a soaking wet billet of wood, an axe and just a few matches may seem like a nearly impossible task. After all, that’s what I thought as I was first learning how to make a “wet day fire.” However, what most people don’t realize is that the dryness of a billet is irrelevant to one’s ability to build a “wet day fire.” Rather, what is most critical to their success is practice, preparation, and an ability to persevere through
setbacks until ultimately satisfied. Building a wet day fire is a mentally and physically challenging skill that is just one of twenty-one tests to become a Junior Maine Guide. Although the process of becoming a Junior Maine Guide was only intended to teach me wilderness skills, I believe it was the most rewarding experience of my life thus far because I gained more than just a vast amount of knowledge about the wilderness. I also took this unique opportunity to
learn and develop critical life skills.

The wet day fire test
One thing that I learned quickly upon arrival at the five day testing encampment is that candidates must be organized, disciplined, and confident in order to succeed in this environment where there is little structure. I had three full days to complete twenty-one tests at any time and in no specific order. I lacked those three essential qualities that I needed, and JMG presented additional challenges that I had never had to tackle before in school. However, as I had learned from my past experiences, success is something that does not come easily to me and has always required more time, effort and motivation on my part. Therefore, these challenges that I was presented with were simply just a few hurdles in reaching my goal.Throughout the three summers, I was committed to gaining the skills needed to succeed.
I overcame my organizational challenges by making study and testing schedules that were essential to keeping myself motivated and on track throughout the summer, and I made sure to stick to them. I learned how to study in more exciting and efficient ways that developed my self-discipline. For example, when learning locations on the map of Maine, my friends and I would place M&Ms on the different locations and if we guessed the location correct, we were
rewarded with the candy. As for my time-management, I learned that using a watch was extremely beneficial to budgeting my time and ensuring that I was able to complete every test in the short time frame. And once I learned that I could build a Wet Day Fire and solo a canoe with ease, I knew I had the confidence to take on anything.

Becoming a Junior Maine Guide has been, by far, the proudest moment of my life, as I knew it was something that I worked so hard to accomplish on my own. This rigorous program typically takes two years to complete, however it took me three. While some people may perceive my additional year in the program as a failure, I choose to see it as a blessing in disguise. I struggle with ADHD and weak executive functioning skills, which is something that affects my everyday life, but I clearly have never let it stop me. In fact, I believe that I have made more improvement with my executive functioning skills through trial and error in the JMG program than I ever have in a school classroom. In the end, I proved to myself and others that I am exceedingly capable of persevering through my learning challenges to accomplish anything that is important to me. It just might take some additional time and effort.

Collect Loose Change – Start Now!

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Camp Runoia families’ efforts to collect loose change from their homes, autos, drawers,
dresser tops and neighbors is making a difference in

Maine. Thanks to our campers who arrived with their change purses filled, and in some cases baggies full of coins, AND those families who mailed in their collection, we were able to raise $344.90. Matt Hoidal and his vision at World of Change WOC has made giving as easy as this

  1. Collect loose change from around your home, vehicles and from relatives
  2. Bring it to camp
  3. We combine it all and Alex delivers it to WOC
  4. WOC partners with organizations in Maine (and other states for other organizations donating).

This is the second summer Runoia collected and donated to WOC as well as our December holiday gift on behalf of our 2019 campers and families. Our donations have contributed to feeding people, providing school supplies, supplying beds to children who sleep on the floor, and more. Check out what WOC is doing and where your change goes.

Our 2020 donation was donated to The Locker Project. From TLP’s website :

Maine has the highest child hunger rate in New England and one of the highest in the nation. One in five Maine children regularly experiences food insecurity. One in three students in Cumberland County and more than half in the Portland schools are at risk of going hungry.

See how The Locker Project is managing to operate with donations and volunteers during the pandemic.

Be on the look out for reminders to collect change for next summer and find out how you can start your own collection in your community with WOC’s ideas about birthdays, Bat Mitvahs, school and business collection sites.

Last year we were able to provide backpacks and school supplies as well as one bedroom set for two children. This year we are feeding many children. Thank you for those of you who collected and contributed to make a difference. It feels good to provide food and meals to children who are food insecure and help to support them to have the band width to learn and participate in education without being hungry.

Love,

Aionur

 

 

 

 

The New Normal with Help from Comfort Food

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Okay. You’ve got your new normal plan for the day.

  • Early morning workout (earns the comfort food!)
  • All children are set up at their remote learning stations.
  • Recess and snack breaks and lunch are planned.
  • Dinner menu is in the works. Maybe.
  • Now dive into work and get as much done before you get interrupted and/or the school day is over.

And…what will we do after school today?

Let’s start with some fresh air and outside play.

Everyone can help fold the laundry.

Fall kitchen fun engages, educates and puts food on the table.  Food transitions from summer to fall is fun and refreshing.

We need comfort food now more than ever.

Start this apple crisps in your oven during the school day.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Thinly slice one apple per person. Leave the seeds in as it’s easy to eat around them. For four apples, toss with 4 teaspoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Take out a baking sheet and place a rack on the sheet, lay out the apple slices on the rack so they are not touching. Flip after an hour, check again an hour later. Will take 2-3 hours. Remove from oven when they are dry but still bend. They will continue to crisp after baking.

Try Bon Appetite’s salt and vinegar potatoes -a great twist on the roasted potatoes we all know and love.

And as a side for tomorrow night, the cheesy baked zucchini helps with the prolific zucchinis in your summer garden and involves the kids with cooking. Try Wholesome Yum’s zucchini gratin recipe making a fab low carb side for dinner. Looking up the definition of au gratin will even enhance their French skills! 

We sure miss camp food, wholesome, readily available, on time and prepared for us. Meanwhile, we can do this: plan, prepare, pivot. Repeat.

Hang in there!

Love,

Aionur

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Shout Out from Dr. Dora Mills

Posted on by Pam Cobb

 

Put Your Hands in the Air! 

The sister of the Governor of Maine and former CDC Director of Maine, Dr. Dora Mills posted this about the summer camps that opened in Maine this summer:

A few weeks ago, there were numerous news stories about summer camp outbreaks in Georgia and other states. People were wisely asking why they were allowed to open. And when they did open, why weren’t they adhering to known effective strategies, e.g. masking, distancing, and cohorting? The good news is that Maine’s overnight youth camps have recently adjourned after a successful summer. They hosted campers and staff from most states in the U.S. as well as a number of other countries. I understand that it appears we did not have one summer camp outbreak. Maine’s guidance required camps to implement all of the known effective strategies. They used a great amount of creativity to implement them, and seemed to have done so very successfully. 

Although summer camps are not the same as schools, the experience here this summer gives me optimism that we can do the same for schools and other venues. Having worked with many youth camp directors over the years when I led Maine CDC, I found them and their campers a most creative and flexible group. Teachers I know or have known (including my own mother, grandmothers, aunts, and nieces) as well as school children are similarly innovative and adaptable, which are key ingredients to reopening camps as well as schools. We are also fortunate in Maine to sustain low levels of pandemic activity, although some recent outbreaks are concerning. This gives us higher chances to reconvene schools successfully in the coming weeks.

News From Camp July 22, 2020

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Dear Families,

We have had a busy and full three days of camp. We got right into activities and now we are on day four, AKA Wacky Wednesday, where the schedule is mixed up a bit. Tomorrow we start our next block of activities so girls will move onto three new activities in camp plus swim time, evening program, rest hour, snack time and meal time.

Just like vacation, we seem to schedule everything around meals! We are active and eating well and
hydrating. Drinking the amazing Harmony Land Water which tastes magical and gives us super powers! All campers have adjusted well to coming through the banquet line and going to their assigned seating as if they have been doing it forever. Sleeping in the cool Maine air is simply delightful (and restful)!

Our Evening Programs, based out of cabin areas, bring a great close. We have enjoyed Name That Tune, Country Creations, Scategories, Jen’s Surprise Skits, Mostest, Sport Rotations. Cabin counselors run the EP and sometimes we combine with social distancing.

Today is the beginning of our two days of testing. We’ll test all our campers and hold our breath until test results come in by next Monday. We feel positive and are cautiouslyoptimistic. No camper or staff has symptoms that would cause alarm. However, we all know, we cannot be too careful. We will continue to do our best practices of COVID protocols. Building lifelong skills at Camp Runoia!

You can find pictures of campers and activities on our Facebook page. We have been posting every night but may not be able to keep up with that schedule. Every day at camp is filled with the events of a week and every week is like a month-ful! 140 people doing a lot of awesome things!

Campers love getting mail. Probably the last mail from home should be mailed out on Saturday August 1. If you want you can mark envelopes with a date on the address (August, 5, 6, 7) if you don’t want your
daughter to get all your mail at once. After August 1, we do not think the mail will get delivered in time for your daughter to get it. We will hand out Camp Stamps from Camp in Touch through Friday August 7 – please do not write on the 7th because we won’t get it until the 8th when we will be organizing campers for the bus and pick up.

Meanwhile, we have two and one half weeks left of glorious summer camp experience. A summer that will last a life time.

Wishing you the very best from Harmonyville!

Love,   Aionur

Update from Camp April 29, 2020

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Dear Runoia Families and our “Runoia Family”,

Here is our weekly update bring April to a close with a hint of some great news:

Our Maine Governor, Governor Janet Mills, with the Director of Maine CDC, Dr. Shah, presented a press conference yesterday. These two have given us hope and as clear as possible messages in these unprecedented times. The great news is with strict practices, Maine has been flattening the curve over the past few weeks. Yesterday’s press conference was a detailed plan about the roll out phases of restarting the Maine community with public health and safety being a priority. You can find more details on the Maine plan here.

Governor Mills put resident summer camps in phase 3 of the roll out plan. This means, if everything goes to the standards her team has set, we will be able to open Camp Runoia in July! This would mean we are looking and hoping for the 2nd contingency plan of camp we mentioned in the April 15 update here. In short, we open camp in July for 2 shorter sessions and full season campers may attend camp both sessions.

As you can imagine the over 100 Maine resident summer camps have been waiting for guidelines so we can make decisions about camp that make sense. The plan and partial mandates given yesterday (including a stay at home order extended through May 31 and 14 day quarantine upon entering the state) leaves us with a lot of questions. Fortunately, we have Maine Summer Camps Executive Director, Ron Hall and the Executive Board meeting with the governor’s task force as soon as tomorrow to get more answers to our many questions. We have a camp “Town Hall” on Friday and hope to receive more clarity.

As soon as we have more information and can set dates and parameters for travel and more, we will be in touch.  We realize this is an ever evolving and dynamic situation. We appreciate your hope, support and patience.

Meanwhile, we continue to lay out health and safety plans for our current employees, our equine team, our local Belgrade Lakes tradespeople (from plumbers to wifi specialists) to keep them safe as we ramp up camp in preparation for the 2020 season. We take the health and safety of our campers, our camp families, our employees and local business families very seriously.

From Great Pond, we send you love and a “wadas”. We will continue to update you in a transparent manner as soon as possible.

 

For the Whole Runoia Crew,

Pam

Update from Camp Runoia

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Greetings and an Update from Camp!

It’s been a long and busy week for all since we last checked in.  We wait with patience as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to change our lives and routines.  Our hearts go out to those directly affected and also to our brave health care workers and first responders, including many of our alumnae and parents, who are on the front line. We are thinking of all of you and hope our activities help bring joy and laughter to your lives.

Stay tuned here over the next few weeks for news from camp. As of now, we are staying the course for summer 2020.
_________________________

New this week is: All Family EP This THURSDAY NIGHT

MOSTEST Emceed by Barb!
Time: Thursday Apr 9, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/9194214302?pwd=R2EyRXkzaHEzUG5yQmk4T3BEeE4rZz09

Meeting ID: 919 421 4302
Password: contact pam@runoia.com for the password or search your inbox for “Update from Camp Runoia” sent 4.8.2020

  • The object of the game is for each team to prepare the following categories:

best team name
best team cheer
best team uniform
oldest team (add up all the ages of team members)
longest hair
years at Runoia
weirdest talent
best celebrity impression
most letters in full name
best gentle-est lullaby sung by a team
best dance moves
wackiest pet
coolest socks being worn by a team member
most flexible team member

  • Judges will award points and the team with the most points wins!
    _________________________

Campfire on FB Live every Sunday night at 7 pm
Our April 12th Campfire theme is LAUGHTER. Send your song requests to Alex alex@runoia.com

As a thanks to Barb for her awesome song “Lava” at last week’s campfire on Earth, attached is a coloring sheet from Mulan!
_________________________

Runoia’s After School Activities can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY3ncji0tZIAnWRW11ldYsw

You may have tuned in to try everything from friendship bracelets to Congo bars recently. Here’s a reminder of this week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 4 pm EST – Duct Tape wallets, Whoopie Pies and CJ’s egg osmosis)

and next week’s list to help you get your supplies ready:

April 13th, Monday – Flower Rings with Abbie – supplies – 4 pipe cleaners
April 15th, Wednesday – Macramé Bracelets with Alex & K – supplies – tape, scissors, 2 different color nylon craft string (not embroidery floss but nylon string which is thicker)
April 17th, Friday – Toilet Paper Tube Projects with Callie – supplies – toilet paper roll tubes, tape, colored paper, markers

Shout out to Jen for organizing the activities and “bobos” to all the Runoia staff who are leading activities.
_________________________

Please know we are loving you from camp. We appreciate those of you who have completed your forms on your Camp-in-Touch dashboard. Thank You!

We are busy working on everything from current programming, maintenance, summer program, plans for new health check in and health readiness systems at camp, finalizing staff hiring and preparing for an awesome and safe summer on Great Pond.

To our families who celebrate the upcoming holidays, we wish you a Happy Passover and Easter. To all we send peace and calm.

With love,

Pam and Alex
For the Runoia Team

An Update from Runoia

Posted on by Pam Cobb

We are thinking of anyone who is ill and in self-quarantine or hospitalized. We are sending positive thoughts to loved ones, family and friends.

We are well aware that everyone’s every day lives have been turned upside down. Camp Runoia has preserved through other outbreaks (H1N1, SARS, polio) as well as WW1 and WWII and more recent wars. We will forge forward!

We are also monitoring the CDC, following guidelines, and in touch with other resources that have been extremely helpful including our parents who are doctors, our local health team, our insurance company, and food and supply purveyors; we are ready for camp 2020.

The Maine CDC has this info to help understand transmission of COVID-19 and also help lessen the spread of the virus.

Our basic preparedness: requesting no one arrive at camp if they have a fever, pre-camp reach out to families about any illness at home or exposure, our check in systems at camp with new protocols including temperature checks, being outside a lot of the day and frequent hand washing. We are feeling prepared and will continue to respond to new information and recommendations.

Be safe. Stay active. Get sleep. De-stress. Cover your cough. Help others. Practice Social Distancing. Wash your hands!

Snow days – dreaming of Camp Runoia summer days

Posted on by Alex

Up here in Maine snow days catch us by surprise and render everything paused for a moment. Even though they may be contemplated and discussed the night before you really have to wait until the actual moment to be rewarded with their surprise reality.

They generally start with waking up to a 5am phone call cancelling school which requires creeping stealthily into rooms to turn off alarms so that everyone can get a few extra hours of sleep. When the kids finally tumble downstairs bleary eyed I am met with questions of ‘no school?’ and ‘is it a snow day?’ There is a celebratory moment of a test missed or an extra day to complete some left over homework and then murmurings of what to do all day. It’s a day of lazy homemade breakfast not rushed bowls of cereal, PJ’s for as long as you like and an open agenda of what can be done. The regular routines of a typical day are thrown off; no one needs to go anywhere except maybe outside to shovel for a bit and the day is free to craft however you would like it.

Being confined to home for the whole day or at least until the plow guy gets to your driveway can sometimes seem endless and often by late afternoon the lament for summer has begun. We dream about swims in Great Pond, what we would be doing at camp at this time of day and how much longer and fuller the days are. At 7pm when it’s already been dark for a couple of hours and we feel like going to bed it’s hard to imagine that it is just time for EP to start. The pull of camp gets us through the cold wintry days.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a snow day at Camp Runoia? Oh what fun we could have with all of our best summer friends. Skating on the lake, sledding on the hill down to the waterfront, cross country skiing around the fields and a campfire in the snow!

No winter diving!

We will get through the long days of the Maine winter daydreaming about our ‘fine Maine days’ at camp.