caring adults Archives - Page 10 of 10

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 is a gift

Posted on December 10, 2014October 18, 2016 by Alex

All my kids really wanted for the holidays this year was to see their grandparents and get to play with their cousins. A sweet and apparently simple request unless of course all of those family members that you love happen to live 3000 miles away in another country!

The week before Thanksgiving I surprised them with the news that we would be leaving to spend ten days across the pond. While the thought of a red eye to England alone with 2 small children was a little daunting and the cost of plane tickets blew our holiday budget it seemed like the perfect gift for everyone. With just a few tears as we waited for our late night connection in Philly we made it to an overjoyed Gran and Granddad. The smiles on everyone’s face walking out of customs into the arms of the people you have been longing to see every day for the past 8 months was definitely worth the night of the no sleep and could never have a monetary value.

Making memories that will last a life time, forging connections and building relationships has far more value than the store bought toys that soon lie forgotten or are looked over when the next fad comes along.

Camp provides children with a chance to build life skills and develop relationships away from home in a place where they are truly cherished and that they come to love. To those parents that gift camp to their kids for the Holidays while they may wish they had more wrapped gifts thank you! you are truly giving them the gift of new opportunities and lifetime memories that they can treasure forever.

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

Networking

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

Yesterday the Director team was lucky enough to spend the afternoon networking at Migis Lodge on the shores of Sebago Lake in Raymond with a hundred or so other camp directors. We embraced the late summer sunshine while enjoying our end of the season Maine Summer Camps organization meeting, lunch and fellowship.

It is always great to hang out with other directors to hear about their summer adventures, trials and successes. The conversation themes are often common ones: how awesome 4^th of July was, homesick campers, how well new site or equipment worked and either reveling or bemoaning the weather! Although the style and affiliations of our camps vary greatly we all share a true passion for engaging children and youth in the camp experience.

It is empowering to spend time with like-minded camp professionals, to get validation for the work that we do and to share our challenges and successes amongst others who truly understand . We learn from each other, are always willing to share our knowledge and ideas and work for the common purpose of getting more children to have access to a summer camp experience.

We hope that as you are networking on the soccer sidelines, at PTO meetings, in the office, at the gym and everywhere else you travel in your daily lives that you will speak to others about the intrinsic value camp has had for your daughter.

As open enrollment begins October 1^st a plug for Runoia is always appreciated too!

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

International Women’s Day

Posted on March 9, 2013October 18, 2016 by Pam Cobb

There are people in your life who influence your life, add to your life, perhaps even change the course of your life. I would like to acknowledge three women who were significant in my career. When I became a small business owner of a girls’ summer camp, I was enthusiastic and had a passion for being successful but in both cases it was because of the belief of others in me.

I have a lot to be thankful to my mom, Betty Cobb. There’s the obvious. There’s the whole camp director role model thing. But surprising to most, it was the way she affected people and how they grew from her leadership that inspired me the most. My mom was a tough woman, all about do the right thing and sacrifice and for the better good, etc. She had high morals, was often unyielding and worked very, very hard. She loved her family, her students and her campers and counselors. There was a tiny moment when she loved French cooking, too. I enjoyed seeing her explore that because I didn’t see my mom explore a lot that wasn’t innately part of her. She was an excellent cook and I think French cooking was a reach that gave her a new lease on life. One winter she when I was a girl, she went to France and went to cooking school. I digress. Anyway, my mom inspired me to be a hard working, do it yourself person. I wouldn’t be the camp owner/director I am today without my mom. Here’s a picture of her with my dad when she was a young camp owner and director.

The other two women come in tandem. They were both camp directors. Twenty five years ago they approached me together at a camp conference. Like cheerleaders, they rallied and pepped and told me ecstatically how they were happy I was listening to the calling of my family and becoming a fourth generation Cobb family camp owner and director. At the time, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do it. They made me want to do it. There was such glee and infusion of energy in their combined assault on me in the conference lobby of the Center of New Hampshire in Manchester, that I believed in myself that day. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I can remember the clothes I was wearing, the way the light filled the hall, the sound of the conference dimming out behind them as they chimed in unison and gushed over me in excitement. It was a moment in time that has stood still for me. It’s a framed like a picture in my mind. These two camp women, June Gray (with Pat Smith on left) from Camp Wawenock and Jean McMullan from Alford Lake Camp were catalysts for who I am today.

In honor of International Women’s Day, I’d like to thank these three women in my life for helping me believe in myself and carving out the quarter century of my life that has been the center piece of my adult career. I haven’t even started on the hundreds of young women and children and parents I have met on account of my life in camping. That I’ll have to save for another blog.

Happy International Women’s Day 2013.