Tag: sleepaway
Celebrating Camp Birthdays at Runoia
Having a birthday at camp is special and fun in many ways. It’s a birthday bonanza!
There are the songs. The cards. The decorations. There is the birthday party on birthday night. There are the cakes – your cakes and all the other cakes. There are more songs and costumes and loud, crazy, silliness. Lots of birthdays are celebrated at Runoia each summer and they are something everyone looks forward to each session.
Songs are silly songs like: I thought I heard my grandmother say that so and so’s birthday was today with a fee fo and a fi fo… OR Ice cream soda water ginger ale pop, the cake the cake with the candles on top, get ready get ready your pearly white teeth… ALL Runoia campers and alumna can finish the words to these crazy songs.
So whenever your birthday falls, think of the playful Runoia celebrations, the special moments given to girls whether it’s their birthday or not. The whole camp has a party – that’s pretty sweet!
Camp Runoia video blog
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!
A Runoia girl
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:
- Every night, someone at Runoia thinks about you before they go to sleep.
- At least fifteen Runoia girls somewhere in this world love you.
- There are at least two Runoia girls that would die for you.
- You mean the world to a Runoia girl.
- Someone that you don’t even know from camp loves you.
- When you make a big mistake at camp, something good comes from it.
- When you think your friend has turned her back on you, take another look.
- Always remember the compliments you’ve received from Runoia girls.
Runoia girls will…
Remember
Understand
Never hate
Optimize
Inspire
Amaze
Poetry at Camp Runoia
Many of you know Runoia celebrates reading. We also celebrate writing! Campers submit writing to the Camp “Log” each summer and poetry is often read at Assembly in the morning. The log is full of memories of the Maine summer and records the history of the summer events at Runoia. Many of our campers return to their sleepaway camp as alumnae to seek out memories of their summers in the camp Log.
Here’s a poem Runoia would like to share with you.
Late Summer – By Jennifer Grotz
Before the moths have even appeared
to orbit around them, the streetlamps come on,
a long row of them glowing uselessly
along the ring of garden that circles the city center,
where your steps count down the dulling of daylight.
At your feet, a bee crawls in small circles like a toy unwinding.
Summer specializes in time, slows it down almost to dream.
And the noisy day goes so quiet you can hear
the bedraggled man who visits each trash receptacle
mutter in disbelief: Everything in the world is being thrown away!
Summer lingers, but it’s about ending. It’s about how things
redden and ripen and burst and come down. It’s when
city workers cut down trees, demolishing
one limb at a time, spilling the crumbs
of twigs and leaves all over the tablecloth of street.
Sunglasses! the man softly exclaims
while beside him blooms a large gray rose of pigeons
huddled around a dropped piece of bread.
And When You Get Back Home Again…
“You get a strange feeling when you leave a place, like you’ll not only miss they people you love, but you miss the person you are at this time and place because you’ll never be this way ever again”-Azar Nafasi
Three weeks have come and gone, since we bid farewell to each other and our place. Our place is Camp Runoia. At camp we are the best possible “us” that we can be. We are safe, we are encouraged and we are organically just ourselves. The friendships we formed at camp are unique. They are extraordinary relationships.
I recently traveled to California and was with friends and family who I had not seen in years. We talked a lot about camp. My uncle and cousins said at one point “ We get it. We are camp people.” Until you have been to camp, until camp has defined who you are, you cannot totally comprehend the degree of depth that overnight camp has on an individual.
And now the sun sets earlier, September is upon us. This fall brings anew for us all. New school year, new teachers, some have new homes and communities. But we have our best self, stashed inside. Like a treasure in our pocket, we can bring our inner strength and our inner sunshine to this new season and these new experiences. We will never be the same again, we grow and we change and with that is the hope that we are our best selves because in part of who we became at camp. At our Camp Runoia…our home away from home.
I find that I take myself home, to Camp Runoia, almost daily. I hum along to songs and think about the sound of the lake and the green of the giant ferns.
“…Dip, dip and swing them back…Flashing with silver…follow the wild goose flight…dip, dip and swing…” — Hum along through the changing seasons … and be your best self on whatever adventure this fall brings.
Kyleigh – Camp Runoia Associate Director
Runoia – A Bittersweet Ending
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.
Making Songs into Summer Messages
I know a place where the sun is like gold, and every evening you play games like Know Your Counselor, Lip Synch Contest, Stop the Bus and Broomball.
Out on the blue waves, where summer breezes blow, our boats, kayaks, windsurfers, swimmers and stand up paddle boarders go sailing into sunset glow.
Make new friends but keep the old; this summer at Runoia we’re meeting people from California to Florida, from Minnesota to Texas and from England, Spain, Venezuela, Ireland, Hungary and Switzerland. We are a merry merry crew the Runoia girls are we!
Be it ever so humble there’s no place like camp and when you travel to Attean Pond and to the Bigelow range, returning to camp feels just like home. Our equestrian team traveled to Camp Vega and brought home the Championship ribbon. There’s no place like home!
And so I thank the earth for giving me, the sun and the rain the apple tree – we are ever grateful for our sun drenched days, and even a summer storm or two keeping camp green and perpetuating a #FineMaineDay.
Where does the wind come from? Does anybody know?
Besides turning thoughts into camp song, we’ve been busy with activities, meeting people, creating art, learning about tennis, archery, riding, skiing, sailing, basket making and more.
Until next week. Love, Aionur
Mid Summer
A Mid Summer Night’s Dream
After saying ‘goodnights’ during the summer, I walk up from Senior Village at around 10pm through the dark. The sky is filled with stars I don’t carry a flashlight as I know the paths well. Some nights are so dark there are moments when I think I may lose my way on others the moon is bright in the often clear, Maine sky. I am met on the kickball field by the odd firefly. They catch me by surprise and always seem so mysterious with their ability to produce light.
At the end of a busy day camp is quiet and still. The girls and many of the counselors are in their beds. They may still be reading or writing a letter home but most are already asleep. It is one of my favorite times of day at Camp Runoia.
As we embrace the middle of our camp season it is a great time to reflect on the gift of camp. To be able to live, work and play in such a beautiful place surrounded by nature and people who love being here is beyond compare. We have a deep appreciation for the gift that we have all been given.
As I fall asleep listening to the loons I imagine the magic that exists around me and dream of fairies dancing at Fairy Ring.
What Camp Means to Me
Camp Runoia has helped make me who I am today. Runoia has taught me many life lessons, especially how to adjust to change in my life. Before camp, I had never been away from my parents. Although it was extremely hard for me being away from my family my first year, Pam and the staff handled themselves great, always being there for me when I was feeling homesick. The second and third year, I had a fantastic time, and had started to learn how to adjust to the change of not being with my family. Now, fast forward to college. I am from Pennsylvania and because Camp Runoia taught me to be an independent woman, I was able to go to the University of Maine. Here at the University of Maine, I met my now fiancé, John and are now settling in the Portland, Maine region. I would never have been able to go to college far away from my parents, if I had not been to Runoia. Camp Runoia has helped me become a strong independent woman. I am so grateful for my time at Runoia, and feel that sending me to Runoia was the greatest gift they ever gave me, for at Runoia I learned so many life lessons. I really believe I would not have the life I have today without Camp Runoia. Anastasia Kerner