camp runoia Archives - Page 8 of 9

A moment in time.

Posted on April 27, 2015October 18, 2016 by Alex

Vernal pools temporary yet essential.

As the snow finally melts here in Maine and we transition into what is often a short spring there are many new and temporary delights to be found. Around camp where the water is pooling in depressions or a small stream has widened on its way down to Great Pond you can now see vernal pools. While they will likely be long gone by the time the campers arrive for the moment they provide a temporary habitat for the creatures emerging from the winter. Although vernal pools may only contain water for a relatively short period of time, they serve as essential breeding habitat for certain species of Maine wildlife, including salamanders and frogs. The air at night is now loudly filled with the noise of spring peepers and wood frogs that are quickly mating and laying eggs before the pools dry up.

This time of year is energizing and engaging, we see signs that summer will soon be here and still have a quiet moment to enjoy the beautiful environment around us. How fortunate we are that Ms. Weiser and Ms. Pond found the perfect spot for Runoia amidst the tall, shady, pine trees. Much of our property is in a tree farm easement which allows us to keep the natural habitat available for all of our local wildlife.

While individual people’s time at Runoia may be temporary we are grateful to all who have stepped through the gates and left their mark on our camp. The vision of our founders and those that have preserved Runoia as a camp along with all of our girls and counselors breed the memories that will be preserved for a lifetime. The summer of 2015 like a vernal pool or lunar moth will exist for only a short moment in time yet will grow the spirit of Runoia for generations to come.

Encourage in Four Words

Posted on March 2, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Today’s trending topic on Twitter is #EncourageEveryoneIn4Words or in four words: Encourage in Four Words. With a definition of “Offer up a few words (four to be exact) to give your friends a little extra boost.”

We can think of a lot of ways camp gives people an extra boost but here is one of our favorites:

And a timeless award winning four word bit of happiness:

But when you think about it, if we thought of camp itself in these sound bites, what would be say:

Camp Gives Children Lifeskills

Campers Make Great People (substitute: Workers, Parents, Partners, Co-Workers, Citizens, Businesswomen, Scientists, Thinkers – the list goes on and on).

Encourage everyone in four words is a fun way to start the week. We are big fans that something so small has to do with encouragement. We also know that leads to people being clever and funny and silly and smart and taking it all to another level. We like that, too! Why not?

The bigger question we leave you with is “what four words would you use to encourage?”

Have Fun With It!

A journey to camp

Posted on February 22, 2015October 18, 2016 by Alex

Is it a torch or a flashlight?

Perhaps the greatest adventure of my life was my first trip to the US. I had just finished my second year of college and having spent the previous summer living back at home and working retail full time had I was in search of a different opportunity. Luckily my college was a big early proponent of ‘abroad’ experiences and the being a ‘camp counselor at American summer camp’ was a popular choice for sports science majors.

I have vivid memories of the planning, packing and journey. Remember this was back in the dark ages before the internet so I had little clue what the place looked like and had honestly never heard of Maine! My entire knowledge of American culture had been absorbed from the limited US TV shows on British television. It was likely some combination of ‘Fame’ and ‘Starskey and Hutch’! This was also before the time of the super Walmart and I thought I needed to pack every item I could possibly need for the next 3 months in my human sized backpack it never dawned on me I could shop when I got there!

I was giddy with enthusiasm, met a random girl who was working at the same camp at the airport and headed out into the wide blue yonder.

What a trip it has been! While I have traveled to many countries and had many experiences that trip to the US was truly a life changer.

Now over 20 years later summer camp has become my career, the journey has taken many twists and turns and I have met so many amazing and interesting people along the way. I could never have imagined that I would have ended up living and raising my children in Maine.

Having the courage to take the first step of the journey can lead you to places you never imagined. Be daring and go for it.

Camp is….about family

Posted on February 3, 2015October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Runoia Blog

Hi, my name is Phoebe. I’m eleven, and I was in second shack last year. I think that one of the reasons that Runoia is such a great place to be, is because everyone there is like family. Everybody is so nice no matter what. Currently, my cousin, Erin, is a counselor and it was just my sister’s last year as a camper. I also had a cousin, Megan who went to camp too. Although I have some real family there, I also have all of my friends who seem just like sisters to me.

Another great thing about camp is that it doesn’t matter if you are way older than your best friend or way younger than her either. Camp is like a whole other world where everybody is super nice.

Now last but not least, the counselors at camp make everything super fun. All of the activities would not be the same without them. In the shack, they are always there to comfort you if you get homesick, and out of the shack, they are always willing to help you try new things and achieve your goals.

To sum it everything at camp comes down to being a great community. It is pretty much just one big happy family

The bus!

Posted on January 22, 2015October 18, 2016 by Alex

Reflections on the not so magic school bus

My kids stopped riding the school bus this year. We live in a small, rural community only about 4 minutes on the same road from their school. It dawned on me that while riding the bus is the norm and was certainly convenient it did not have any benefits and perhaps was actually having a detrimental impact on all of us. A change in routine with me driving them has significantly reduced stress in our lives and has strengthened not only our relationships as a family but also our connections within our community.

The bonuses are many: I get to build social relations with the other parents picking up ‘walkers’ at school, I see some of the teachers in the halls and can stop to catch up for a minute or two, if it’s good weather we hang out playing outside school with friends, my kids talk to me and each other on the ride there and back so I find out way more than I did when they were on the bus, we also have more time for fun and stress free homework before heading off to activities.

While driving I have paused to noticed the number of parents on our route that sit in their cars for sometimes 20 minutes or more waiting for the bus when they could drive up to school and get their kids. It is interesting that we become so conditioned to do something a particular way that we never look at it from a different perspective or question the ‘why’.

I know there are many reasons why riding the bus is a good thing for kids and I am not arguing the for or against but more the concept that sometimes taking a step back, questioning or doing simple everyday things differently can have unexpected results.

There are many things that we do in life with little thought or intentionality. Mix it up, try doing something differently or at least pausing for a moment of thought about why you are doing it the way that you are!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Posted on January 8, 2015October 18, 2016 by Alex

Recycling with Betty

This new year, as I am trying to reduce excess material goods in my life, I fondly remember my first couple of summers at Runoia. It was the mid 90’s and the environmental movement hadn’t really hit yet. Well it hadn’t hit the rest of the country but it was alive and well with its roots in the Runoia trash house. Reduce, reuse, recycle was already the mantra and Betty Cobb its biggest proponent.

There was no dumpster at camp back in those days and all the trash had to be hauled to the Belgrade transfer station. As you can imagine at Runoia there were awesome systems in place even for trash management. There was a compacter in the back of the kitchen. I had never seen one before and to be honest the noises it made terrified me a little but it magically turned a large bag of garbage into a small square foot of squashed matter. Paper products were burned after the Saturday night cookouts (not really best practice these days). Cups and plates were always stacked (and still are) to take up less room in the trash. Everything that could be reused or recycled was.

Betty was often found ensuring that the actual trash did not contain any recyclable items. Her goal was not to terrify people into carrying their entire trash pile home with them but to educate us about the need to protect the earth’s resources. She would often say that she was not doing it for herself but for the children as they would be the ones that would inherit the problems.

I am grateful for the lessons I learned even if I was called out in assembly because Betty had found an envelope with my name on it in the trash not the recycle! Sadly Betty’s concerns are now ringing true as we see the impact a lack of attention to resource management is having on our earth’s future. I hope that the Runoia community will long continue to promote environmentally good practices and that it will become a life skill that our girls take home with them.

Make a difference in your home and community, just recycling is no longer enough what else can you do?

“If every household in the U.S. used just one less 70-sheet roll of paper towels, which would save 544,000 trees each year. If every household in the U.S. used three less rolls per year, it would save 120,000 tons of waste and $4.1 million in landfill dumping fees.” (From the Paperless Project).

Resources:

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/green-living/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321#slide-1

http://www2.epa.gov/recycle

Read or watch the The Lorax with your kids it’s a great visual reminder!

Happy what?

Posted on January 4, 2015October 18, 2016 by Alex

Merry Birthday

Kids Birthdays and the Holidays are a challenge for any parent. Believe me not only have I lived through my own childhood experience of always having an Easter Birthday (which for the record is a 2 week school break in the UK!) I now have to navigate my sons New Year’s Day Birthday celebrations.

Things that stink:

There is no mail!! How can you get a pile of cards or parcels when the mail isn’t delivered?

There is some kind of party other than yours going on that everyone gets to go to.

People forget as they are so busy with the Holidays.

People are away on vacation therefore you are challenged to get party attendees – “oh we can come if we are not at the mountain”!

You get doubled up gifts ‘this is for Christmas and your Birthday.’

With a Birthday near Christmas the house is already saturated with new stuff so getting more a week later lacks the magic it would do on some random date in June.

As I parent I try to make it as special as possible, I make sure all of the Christmas decorations are down and we make an effort to do Birthday decorations and balloons. We get a different surprise not just a leftover off the Santa list gift. There is a party of some kind with whoever can make it and we really try to make it a special day.

Camp birthday’s fall into the not quite your average Birthday celebration category.

Awesome things that happen on camp Birthdays:

170+ people sing to you!

People take time to make you stuff like cards and friendship bracelets.

Everyone has to come to the party and dress up in crazy costumes.

There is a Birthday song known only to Runoia people.

You get to parade around an entire dining hall showing off your cake

You likely get to celebrate again when you get home.

However you celebrate your Birthday we hope it’s always got ‘cake with candles on top’ I dare someone to try putting them on the bottom!

Camp Runoia’s History – Abridged Version

Posted on November 20, 2014October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

A Short History of Camp Runoia

1906 – Lucy Weiser and Jessie Pond scout locations for Camp Runoia and land in Belgrade, Maine.

1907 – Camp Runoia opens on the Northeastern side of Hatch Cove on Great Pond with 7 campers, a cook and Miss Weiser and Miss Pond

1910 – the first Camp Runoia Log Book was written recording the history of the summer events

1914 – Miss Weiser secured the land known as the Wentworth Farm on the Southwestern shore of Great Pond.

1915 – in the winter, the first camp building was hauled across the ice of Great Pond to establish the camp kitchen on the new property

1915 – in the summer, campers arrived to camp on the present site of Camp Runoia for the first summer

1916 – new buildings were erected on the property including an addition to the kitchen and cabins 1, 2 and 3

1917 – The Runoia Lodge was built

1918 – Camp Runoia operates throughout World War 1

1939-1945 – Camp carries on during World War 2 albeit a difficult time to get supplies and food. Campers helped to farm and build at camp to support their summer camp experience1952 – Betty and Phil Cobb met each other at Phil’s grandfather’s camp, Camp Wyonegonic, Denmark, Maine

1953 – Betty and Phil Cobb married and that summer visited over 50 camps in New England searching for a camp for sale.

1954 – Betty and Phil worked with Lucy Weiser for the summer and bought Runoia at the end of the season.

1991 – Pam Cobb bought Runoia from her parents, Phil and Betty Cobb

2012 – The Tabell Family Foundation donated a gift to scan and preserve the Runoia Logs!

2013 – the 60^th summer Runoia has been owned and operated by the Cobb Family

2016 – will be the 110^th anniversary summer of Camp Runoia!

Halloween and Costumes

Posted on October 28, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

The name Halloween is said to derive from the Old English ‘hallowed’ meaning holy or sanctified and is now usually contracted to the more familiar word Hallowe’en. It is also known as All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve and is celebrated on October 31^st the day before November 1st All Saints’ Day in the western Church.

Possibly evolving from the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain, modern Halloween has become less about literal ghosts and ghouls and more about costumes and candy. The Celts used the day to mark the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, and also believed that this transition between the seasons was a bridge to the world of the dead. Over the millennia the holiday transitioned from a somber pagan ritual to a day of merriment, costumes, parades and sweet treats for children and adults. (History.com)

The modern celebration of Halloween which has often been replicated at summer event days or EP’s at camp is a complicated mix of traditions and influences. Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, playing pranks andtelling scary stories.

Dressing up in a fun costume is the Camp Runoia favorite Halloween pastime! Hopefully our camp Facebook page spotlight on creative costuming has given you some camp themed easy ideas! It’s amazing what you can do with a few props and a bunch of dress up clothes!

Put your arts and crafts skills to good use and enjoy trick or treating!

Camp Runoia’s season of change

Posted on October 22, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

October is an interesting month in the camp Runoia office. It is finally a time to breathe and reflect while enjoying the beauty of the seasons changing around us. Camp in the fall is so quiet with the merriment of summer long gone, the days getting shorter and a chill in the air. Flip flops are no longer the footwear of choice and layers are the way to dress as you never quite know how the day will turn out.

Our days are filled with pondering, questions and often discussion. There are many aspects of the camp business to reflect upon as we contemplate the past season and plan for the next. What site and facility jobs must be accomplished before the snow flies? how many spaces will be open for new girls? which staff are invited back? what were the summer highlights? where do we need to improve? how will winter tasks be distributed?

There is time to spend looking through the thousands of photos from the summer, to miss the happy smiling faces and reminisce about people and events. There is more time to chat on the phone with returning and prospective parents and to connect together as a team to share our hopes for the next season.

As the last leaves get raked off of the archery field we are glad for this time of change and hopeful that when the leaves appear again we will be ready to greet the spring and be well prepared for our new 2015 season of camp!