camp runoia Archives - Page 9 of 9

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!

Service learning at camp

Posted on October 14, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

This summer during their 7 weeks at camp our incredible group of CIT’s managed to fit in more than 20 hours each of community service. They participated in a wide range of activities from seeking out invasive Eurasian milfoil along our camp shoreline to running the kids table at the local Aquafest.

They put to use the skills they gained through their CIT program while also providing much needed support to local organizations that rely on volunteers to operate.

They also increased Camp Runoia’s visibility in our local community and built positive connections between camp and area organizations. They were able to chat with summer visitors about the camp experience and the value camp plays in their lives.

It was a powerful experiential learning experience for the girls and the skills they worked on translated easily to other aspects of their CIT program and to their everyday lives. The lifelong skills and enthusiasm for volunteer service that they built at camp will stay with them as they grow and learn in life.

What are you doing to make a difference in your community?

Life Lessons at Camp Runoia

Posted on October 9, 2014October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

LIFE LESSONS

Life Skills: Learning on Camping Trips at Runoia

Earlier this year, one of my friends asked me “what’s the best place you’ve ever been? And I answered “camp”! Although this is only my second year here, I cannot begin to describe how much camp has impacted my life. I truly feel as if I have been here forever. Camp is all about making life long friends, as well as memories and I am so thankful that I have been able to have that experience.

The hardest part about camp for me is saying goodbye to all of the people I’ve become so close with because I’m not certain when the next time is that I will see them. You meet people, make memories and then you say goodbye. However, I’ve learned that that is what makes this camp experience so special. Being here has also taught me to live in the moment and to take every opportunity that I am given, and I am so thankful for this life long lesson. To all of my friends here at camp, you know who you are, past present and future, I want to thank each of you for letting me into your life. I love you all.

To the Camp Runoia Directors, thank you so much for keeping the Camp Runoia traditions strong and for sharing them with me.

Written by Rose B. for the Camp Runoia Log, August, 2014

Posted on September 29, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

The international camper perspective:

You may wonder what drives our international parents to send their girls thousands of miles from home; to a place they have often never been; to have an experience that is not only challenging in itself but must be conducted with English as a second language!

This Runoia parent sums it up beautifully:

“I have been wanting to get in touch with you since the girls came back from their camp experience to let you know what an amazing, rewarding and joyful experience it has been for them! Even V. who had a more difficult start, came back announcing she wanted to repeat next year! And the friends they have made: they are already in contact via mail with some of them, and plan on keeping it that way…

And from my side, I feel they have not only improved their English, but gained self-confidence about their capacities to go beyond their own initial limitations. So once more, thanks for all of that! And indeed I will enroll them for next summer.” (Camp Runoia Mom from Spain)

While improving English skills may be the initial drive it is apparent that the whole camp experience is what the girls take home.

International campers and staff add diversity to our Runoia population and provide opportunities to share cultural exchanges.

In 2014 we had campers and staff representing more than 10 different countries!

It is a win, win for everyone.

Camp Runoia News – Limerick Style!

Posted on August 12, 2014October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Camp this week was a blast

We made each minute last

Playing out on the lake

Riding horses and ate cake

Our time here went by too fast!

Trips this week were so fun

Canoeing and hiking got done

Fun days at the beach

Mountain peaks within reach

We made it through thunder and sun!

Capture the Flag was an EP

Also we had a birthday party

Sunday was The Dot

Monday football was fought

Lip Synching skits were the key

Blue White playing has begun

Kayaking, swimming and a run

The tri brought new game

Of Ironwoman fame

At CR sporting is fun

The end of summer ‘14

Mixes our thoughts in between

With family in sight

And tears of delight

Hugs with friends makes quite a scene!

Maine Orchids

Posted on May 15, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

Spring Mystery

One of my first springs in the US I was hanging out with Marsha Cobb at Treetops at Camp Runoia exploring her garden and reveling in how the recently frozen ground was now putting forth many new blooms. Tucked away under some trees she showed me some wild trillium. Not only was it beautiful but also mysterious. It is an elusive and endangered plant that never really grows in the same spot twice. They are technically perennial herbs growing from rhizomes so tend to travel secretly under the soil. I looked for it again the following year only to be disappointed as I was unable to find it.

A couple of years ago by my house I came across some in the woods and dared to transplant a piece (don’t do this at home it is illegal in some states!). The mystery reappeared in my flower bed much to my delight!

Now if only Lady Slippers were not so illusive! I will be waiting for Pam to let me know they have arrived at Camp Runoia in Maine so that I can make my annual visit to see their spring beauty! http://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/about/cypripedium.ht

The mysteries of a Maine spring lead into the majesty of summer! We are counting the days.

Spring is in the Air!

Posted on May 12, 2014October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

Spring time is a happy time at Camp Runoia. It’s basically a celebration! We are excited about the summer season and everyone arriving and getting busy with camp fun. We are busy as bees buzzing around getting buildings spruced up, lawns and trails cleaned up and ordering equipment and supplies for the fun summer ahead.

New in 2014? Lots of things. Among them honey bees! You may have heard a buzz at Runoia and it’s true. We have two bee colonies located in two hives. Both hives are healthy and producing honey and taking care of their queen and producing more honey bees.

Our honey bees will be pollinators for local farmers (as well as our own farm and gardens) and hopefully they will produce honey we can all taste and share at camp! We are learning as we go and with the help of other bee keepers in Maine, we hope to keep our hives alive and healthy!

Honey bees are hard workers and aren’t the type of bees that want to sting people or animals. They are very busy doing their jobs which include guarding the hive, being field bees and pollinators, nursing the queen and other drone activities. If you are worried about a friend who is allergic, we will let you know where the bees are and how to avoid their area! Meanwhile, if you are a bee enthusiast, feel free to share anything with us at Camp Runoia about bees if you’d like to. We are all learning together!

This summer campers can don the bee costumes and learn more about bees. It will be a fun time on the Runoia farm!

Here’s a picture of us checking the bees today:

Reinventing Yourself at Overnight Camp

Posted on March 30, 2014October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

One of the grand moments of going off to camp is feeling independent and having the opportunity to reinvent yourself. At Camp Runoia you have the chance to be a different person than you are in school or in your neighborhood or with your parents.

I do not imagine any young girls are scheming about this prior to camp. “When I show up at camp, I am going to be a courageous girl who helps others and is always kind and respectful to adults.” Or “I cannot wait to get to camp where I can be the first one up in the morning to help others with their morning chores.” In fact, it’s not something we even bring up with campers. It just happens and most campers reflect on it at some point during the summer.

A transformation occurs when girls come to camp that is purely organic. The tendency is that within a short period of time, girls drop their “baggage” from the school year and leave it somewhere between the parking lot and beginning of the two mile road to camp. Layers of pressure unload or the steam slowly seeps out from the pressure cooker of life.

Within the first few days campers unpack more of their emotional “stuff and become a little more carefree. They try something new without fear of humiliation. They stand up for others without being excluded from groups. As the summer session carries on, more and more of this happens around them and they find that being their true selves is easy and burden-less. Hallelujah!

Camp Runoia, where diversity is celebrated, people are included and valued for who they are and how they grow and what they contribute to the camp community. This leaves a lot of possibility for girls to try being someone else when they get to camp.

Unlike famous 19^th century female writers with pseudonyms “nom de plumes”, many who wrote with male names in a male-dominated profession, some campers truly try out a slightly different persona. They try behaving differently and receive speedy feedback in the form of gratitude, attention, cheers, acknowledgment and adding value. This phenomenon may come in the form of a personal victory of getting up in front of a crowd when they

have previously had stage fright or they find themself climbing to a high height when they have been scared of heights in the past. It starts with talking in front of a small group when it’s their turn and builds to performing in the talent show. Or climbing a little bit higher on the climbing tower and then trying the Runoia “Dragonfly” zipline at the end of the session.

Small steps to success lead to large distances covered in life.

Camp Runoia – building lifelong skills

Pay it Forward – Overused Phrase? I don’t think so!

Posted on November 4, 2013October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

I love November and it is tied to Thanksgiving and being thankful, being around loved ones and feeling warm and fed. Thankful being the key word.

When I saw a note that said “if you left your brand new board here, we have it, call us”, it reminded me when we returned a woman’s purse and how good that made US feel (needless to say the woman!). The fascinating part of that story is that we found the purse on a hiking trail in Carrabassett Valley. When we found the ID in the wallet, it was for a student from the Bahamas. Seriously – what do we do with that? Well, when back at the condo, we searched Facebook for the purse’s owner and I shared one friend with that young woman. What are the chances? I texted my friend and viola! Purse returned. And, I digress.

November is the ultimate month for paying it forward (now a verb – the entire action of doing something for someone else after someone does something good for you).

We use the phrase liberally – giving to someone else when you don’t expect anything in return or passing along a good deed or surprising someone else with a good deed. Perhaps it’s a stretch from Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book In the Garden of Delight, nearly a century ago. It was brought to current day society through Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacy’s sweet film based on a novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde – written and directed by two women, btw. Haley Joel Osment who launches a good-will movement. I hear the phrase more frequently now that social consciousness is a school yard and coffee shop subject. Maybe the film helped provide momentum for the movement – good stuff!

Overall, we just want to do GOOD. When I think of the camp experience and all the focus we have on helping others, thinking of others, including others, working as a team, giving to others, I feel #camp is all about Pay it Forward. As a camp business, we want to create good feelings, provide great experiences and hope that all the people we connect with do the same for others. #MaineCamps are exponentially doing good with thousands of campers and staff every summer and those campers and adults are going into their home communities and doing GOOD there.

So, greet November with a warm hug – go do something good for someone else with no expectation and see how great you feel. Pay it forward is easy and effective and far from overused.