Staff member Erica Carthy ‘Dream Team 2015’ captured the spirit of camp in this excellent video blog.
Take 3 1/2 minutes to relax and become absorbed in Runoia life #magichappens at Camp Runoia.
We are certain that it will leave you longing for camp days.
Thanks Erica!
We’re gonna make this place your home!
What a Runoia girl is to me – Emily Friedman aged 9
At the end of every summer, looking back, I remember Runoia. Each summer is better than the last. Camp inspires me to be who I am and know that there are people out there that really care about me. Sometimes even a whole shack of friends!
These photos represent camp to me. The images show some of the places around camp. I also created a model of arts and crafts, a ropes course, drama, woodshop and camp craft. Most of these are my favorite activities. This set up helped me remember Camp when I was missing it after first session was over and I was back at home.
I always remember that:
Runoia girls will…
Remember
Understand
Never hate
Optimize
Inspire
Amaze
Passing through the Runoia gates each year, it seems futile to try and predict the course of a summer. Running from activity to activity with a friend you’ve only just met, but with a feeling that you’ve known each other for all eternity. Passing levels, achieving goals, hiking mountains, they’re all a part of camp. Those are the pieces everyone will talk about, the big moments. Other camp experiences are more subtle, yet they are the ones that truly set one summer apart from the rest. It could be something as simple as stopping to pick blueberries on the way to flag raising every morning. It could be a moment between two friends, sitting and watching the waves break calmly on the sand. It could be the night out under the stars, trying to find constellations, and hoping to see a shooting star. It could be that one inside joke between cabin mates that’s funny no matter how many times it’s said, or even just spontaneous and uncontrollable laughter. These little spur of the moment memories are made every day. They can’t be planned or anticipated, but looking back over a summer, that’s what we remember. When school comes back around, and everyone starts to get a little camp-sick, we can sit back and remember the blissful time with friends, where we left all our cares behind and enjoyed the moment we were living in. The little moments, there could be hundreds of them in one day alone, create a feeling. That feeling is the piece of camp that we can’t truly explain, but that we carry with us each day of our lives and makes our time at camp so extraordinary.
That’s why the 2015 log is dedicated to the spontaneous moments that come together to form special memories that will last a lifetime.
Carolyn Solimine
The end is always bittersweet.
We like to think of the end as a new beginning. Campers and counselors alike take new skills with them to school and work and life. They cherish new friendships, some that will last a lifetime. Canoeing, sailing, swimming under the sun – those skills will last forever. The counselor who did something caring and thoughtful at a time that a camper needed it, a friend who helped another when they need help, that laughter, endless laughter that they can hear ringing in their ears… these glimpses and moments of summer are instants that weave into the tapestry of campers’ and counselors’ lives. 
Cotillion is our final evening together. A night of tradition starting with processional singing It’s Blue and White, the teams sitting and facing each other in the Lodge, the awards and ribbons, points awarded and special moments of acknowledging accomplishments. The traditional game of #Hucklebucklebeanstalk to find the final scores of the season, the Bobos and cheers and tears, candle lit paths and the cotillion fireside singing.
This night helps put a punctuation mark at the end of the chapter of the summer of 2015. With Runoia’s 110th summer coming up in 2016, a new chapter will be written.Bitter and sweet. Bitter in the ending, sweet in the experience. Bitter in the goodbyes, sweet in the new friendships.
The end is bittersweet.
By Kyleigh
A #Runoiagal – She is adventurous, but cautious. She is intelligent and she is full of inquisition. She loves to laugh. She likes to explore. She appreciates herself. She cares for the world and her family and friends.
In just a few short weeks, we are going to welcome “home” many experienced Runoia Gals and many new.
Together we will make magic happen!
Here is a poem written from one of the youngest campers this year at Runoia. She is beyond excited to come to camp and meet new friends, try new activities, gain autonomy in her physical and emotional abilities. And she is beyond excited to smell the moss and kiss the horses!
I thought I saw nothing…
But it might have been something.
I saw something blue,
But it could also be black
With big white clouds
All the blue connects
Big Beautiful sky!
Where birds fly everyday
I thought I saw nothing…
but it might have been something.
Trees swaying in the wind
The wind smells like the moss and flowers
I am the forest!
Big beautiful forest!
Where birds rest in nests every day.
Here is to all the Runoia Gals that ever have been and ever will be!
Imagine yourself eight years old; you are at sleepaway camp, far far far from your family. You are taking in the fun and action that happens day-in day-out at camp.
One day, as you merrily cruise along in your eight year old world, you are invited to go camping to “Fairy Ring”. Wait, it gets better. Not only do you get to camp at Fairy Ring, you get to have magical s’mores (AKA dessert before dinner) and you spend part of your afternoon building fairy houses for the fairies of Fairy Ring.
Consider your eight year old mind fathoming a camp out where the fairies actually live? When said fairies come to visit before bedtime, you can hardly believe your eyes. Flitting between tall pines and the evening dusk, a movement, a glow, a fairy appears!
The very next morning, when you wake up, the fairies have left you with your very own fairy rock painted in bright colors and glittery-gold.
This tradition at Camp Runoia has been going on since the beginning of time!
As I sit and listen to the wind bring in the sound of the peepers through the open window, I am reminded of how special this time of year is. It is mother’s day. And the world around me is bustling with life and new energy. Today I saw the red robins moving with intent and determination to build nests, I watched a hawk fly with such grace and glory from tree to tree. I see the red and the gray squirrels moving and collecting bounty. The world has awakened from the quiet hibernation of winter and the white stark horizon is now 30 shades of green. It is spring and it is a celebration of life.
Being a mother is my greatest accomplishment. I reflect on this day that it is not actually a celebration of my work, but that of my children.
It is their momentum and their exploration that feed my soul. Spring is also a time of change, and as with all growth there is change.
Chris and I are embarking with our family on great adventure. Our commitment to join the Runoia family is beyond exciting! We are determined and dedicated to bring our enthusiasm to camp and offer our love, our life, our experience, our connection, our intent, our passion, and our good will to Great Pond. We could not be more thrilled to travel to Maine with our beautiful children and share some of the greatest experiences that we could dream of with your daughters!
We promise to be kind, gentle, honest, and to encourage them to find the best of themselves. We support growth and experience. There is so much that the land and the programs at Runoia will teach us all this summer! And as spring blooms with life and spiritual awakening, I resonate with E.E. Cumming’s words “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
At Runoia we encourage and support what spring begins in growth all summer
long. My wish is that as you send your daughters from your nest to our woods, that we provide them with the safety and comfort, courage and the wisdom, the strength and the bravery, to expand their physical and emotional skills to their full potential, becoming exceptional young women.
Happy Mother’s Day. Happy Spring.
Find out more about Kyleigh and Chris Mercier here.
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.
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
Read or watch the The Lorax with your kids it’s a great visual reminder!
Elf on the Shelf – not for the under 10 readers!
There have been lots of commentaries in the mass media about the Elf on the Shelf love it or hate it the under 10 crowd all know what it’s about and it is a very present part of many people’s Holiday build up.
Here’s how it works at our house:
The Elves – yup we have 2 my kids are not the best sharers and we had an old one from Grammy so the retro version showed up too! For the record 2 Elves can get into way more trouble than one.
Timing – they show up whenever Santa remembers to send them! They have been found once or twice hiding out in the tote boxes that we store decorations in, imagine that silly elves.
Names – um yeah about that place in the back of the book where you are supposed to write the names that your oh so adorable toddlers made up – epic fail!
Busted – Luckily their much older sister must have gotten in so late that the elves were scared off from their flight to the North Pole and waited until Mum was at the Post Office!
Pintrest and other parent shaming social sharing sites – I avoid them like the plague and look for links like ‘25 easy things to do with your elf’
Lying – Many parents constantly lie to their kids its part of the deal to enhance and preserve the innocence of childhood and create a little grown up magic in a world that is sometimes pretty tough!
Behavior – a lot of the diatribe on the internet revolves around the moral implications of threatening small children that the elves are going to report to Santa about bad behavior and they will ultimately get coal in their stocking. Luckily my kids are always angels and behave perfectly at all times so we never have to use this threat.
Fun – I think it is totally fun and I love my kids waking up and hunting down the elves laughing at their antics and discussing if they really can see hot glue holding their heads on.
If you’re going to do the Easter Bunny, Santa or the Tooth Fairy then a little Elf magic certainly can’t hurt can it?
It would be kind of fun if they showed up at Camp Runoia.
More reading about those loveable elves is available for endless hours on the www
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/12/16/the-elf-on-the-shelf-is-preparing-your-child-to-live-in-a-future-police-state-professor-says/
https://www.facebook.com/elfontheshelf
