Tag: best camps in maine

Runoia Reads: a reading list for MLK day

Posted on by Colleen O'Malley

Runoia reads – for fun, to grow, to learn, to challenge perspectives, and to place ourselves in the shoes of others.

Reading is a major component of the Runoia lifestyle – with unstructured free-time, an amazing library, and group reading time in cabins before bed, we are sure to make it a priority every day that we can! It serves as a time to unwind from the tiring and busy camp day, and to escape to alternate worlds.

In the past few years, our Diversity Advisory Committee has worked to diversify our library with books that fall under the following categories: Black representation, Black history, gender fluidity, South Asian representation, Asian-American representation, Latinx representation, Indigenous representation, Jewish representation, LGBTQ+ representation, and protagonists with disabilities. From DAC member Claire Williamson’s book list to our 2023 selections that we stocked our library with this past summer, Runoia is happy to offer more and more voices and represent more of our campers with each passing year.

In honor of MLK day next week, and in celebration and commemoration of Dr. King’s life and work and upcoming Black History Month, we encourage our campers, family, staff, and friends to incorporate more books with Black voices, history, and experiences into their reading lists.

This week we are sharing recommendations from our reading list, with many books you can find in the Runoia library! If you find one that catches your eye, consider ordering from a Black-owned bookstore local to you. Runoia reads, and we hope you join us!

Black Representation
A is for All the Things You Are: A Joyful ABC Book by Anna Forgerson Hindley
All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
A Visit to Grandad: An African ABC by Sade Fedipe
Big Hair, Don’t Care by Crystal Swain-Bates
Black is Brown is Tan By Arnold Adoff
Change Sings by Amanda Gorman (Youth Poet Laureate)

I am Enough by Grace Byers
The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
The Water Princess by Susan Verde
Waiting in the Wings by Debbie Allen

Black History
Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
How I Met Lewis Howard Lattimer by Ramon Robinson and Brandon Freeny
Little Leaders, Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
Malcolm Little by Ilyasah Shabazz
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges

Graphic Novels
March by John Lewis
New Kid by Jerry Craft

 

We are so grateful for the work of our Diversity Advisory Committee – which meets monthly to continually improve the Runoia experience through a DEIB lens. The Diversity Advisory Committee of the CRAO is continuing great work with library additions, hate/bias reporting systems, staff hiring and training process to include DEI based aspects of interviewing and training staff, addressing current events and how they relate to running camp and being a camper or staff member at camp and more.

Earth Day in the Runoia Community

Posted on by Colleen O'Malley

The land that is now Camp Runoia was originally stewarded by the tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy – the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq – and it is now our responsibility and honor to carry on the care of this land, on Earth Day and every day.

We start each ‘Fine Maine Day’ at Runoia with the following mantra: “Grant that we have safe and fun days, and that we respect each other, ourselves, and our planet.” We go on throughout our day with the gratitude for the water of Great Pond – conserved by the 7 Lakes Alliance, for the land so beautifully maintained by our maintenance director Tim Pearson, and for both the days full of sunshine and rain – knowing our planet needs both.

We are so fortunate that the campers and families that flock to Runoia are natural leaders and lovers of our earth. In former camper and counselor Grace Pratt’s 2019 log dedication to our planet, she said “Runoia is a magical place, but that magic wouldn’t be possible without the planet we live on.  Earth is our common ground, the reason we get to explore, grow, and connect.”

Knowing our community, we’re willing to bet that so many in our Runoia family will be putting the earth first this weekend for Earth Day – spending their days outside in gratitude, volunteering, doing whatever they can for our planet.

We invite our community to join us collectively to volunteer all around the world in honor of Earth Day – as our campers come from near and far, we know our reach has amazing potential! Wherever you call home this time of year, can you get out this weekend to help our planet?

Luckily, there are so many resources to find volunteer opportunities near you, and it’s not too late to join in the fun!

Here are some resources to help you volunteer or celebrate in:

Portland, Maine

New York City

Boston

Maryland/DC

New Jersey

Colorado

Chicago

Miami

If you can’t find something near you, can you be a leader and start your own event or group to clean up a local park, body of water, or trail?

If you make it out to help our earth this weekend, send a photo to colleen@runoia.com to share!

Happy trails –

Love,

Aionur

 

Women’s History at Camp Runoia

Posted on by Colleen O'Malley

March 1st marks the first day of a month-long celebration here at Camp Runoia: Women’s History Month! Founded by a small group of incredible women, carried on by more incredible women for generations, with its history recorded in detail by incredible women – 116 summers later (soon to be 117), here we still are!

A painting from the 1910-13 log – “Miss Pond’s New Toy!”

Most of the record keeping of Runoia summers was done so in what we call summer logs – a tradition we still carry on each summer. The main difference is that through the years, we saw logs transform from handwritten pieces and newspaper clippings to typewriter passages and now to typed and printed, full-color books.

Our logs tell stories of formative people and summers past, and provide an amazing inside look to the fashions, language, and current events of each time period in American and Runoian history.

Camp Runoia predates women’s right and ability to vote in our country, for example – and in our oldest log available online, we can see evidence of something we already knew within us: that Runoia ‘gals’ were among those pushing for their right to vote:

A page from the 1910-13 log: “Serena’s emblem” regarding women’s right to vote in the US.

So, some things change and some things remain: it’s with gratitude that I say the women of Runoia are still carrying on the legacy of recording camp history, and now thanks to the work of women of that history, we hold the right to vote in this country. And perhaps the most lasting thing among the Runoia community: 110 years after the completion of this log, we are still fighting for our rights, for the rights of friends and family in our community, and working to ‘add more seats to the table.’

While the fashions and language change from log to log throughout Runoia history, it’s also astonishing to see so many things that hold true of Runoia campers across 116 summers. The learned lesson from borrowing and lending important things, the occasional rainy Maine summer day, the love for sunny afternoons on Great Pond, cotillion, silly songs and rhymes, the love for horses – the list goes on.

And, perhaps one of my favorite lasting gems that I found in our logs – the sign-off of “Love, Ainour” which still is a signature stamp of love and care from our camp.

So…

Love, Ainour

To Change: The 2022 Log Dedication

Posted on by Colleen O'Malley

If I were to hold a self-authored book in my hand titled ‘lessons learned in recent years,’ the first page would read: “change, while uncomfortable, and at times even scary, is inevitable, necessary, and important.” Just below this line would read a dedication which credits this realization largely in part to my experiences at Runoia and my witnessing its resilience.

I hold immense gratitude for Runoia’s eagerness to change in ways that show care for our community and open our gates to more friends and family each year. Runoia is able to hold fast to its most vital traditions and pieces of history when we are flexible and bold enough to transform around them.

We owe our continuation, and the perpetuation of our traditions and history, to the courage of ourselves and of generations before us to change. It is due to this courage that we may keep what matters most: the same small bell that has called our attention for over eighty years; our voices that carry through Runoia trees with melodies passed through lifetimes; our boathouse which stands with painted names from the 1920’s through 2022; a culture of summer siblings and lifelong family. 

The winds of Camp Runoia have taught me that change is good. The winds play no favorites – filling our sails one moment, then shifting to calm our waters for skiers the next. Among the winds, we honor all of the transformative shifts of Runoia:

 

Everything ‘lost’ each summer which has ever made room for something ‘found’;

The rain which rolls in just as we could use respite from the sun; 

New lyrics which empower us rather than place us in boxes;

New campers and counselors who arrive at our gates; 

 

People coming as strangers and leaving as siblings;

The ‘Bees and Eees’; 

The changes made each summer, 116 times over, which have made Runoia a permanent fixture in our summers and souls.

 

I hereby dedicate the 2022 log to the changes, both monumental and slight, of the past 116 summers of Runoia, and to its agents of change – our campers, staff, and alumni. May we continue to adjust our sails together to point toward the future. Tonight we celebrate changes which have made Runoia what it is, and who it is, and have led to this very moment exactly as it is now – Runoia and I would not have it any other way.