Researching the Benefits of Camp

“Sending kids to camp allows children to grow and learn good citizenship, social integration, personal development and social development, exploring his or her capabilities and being in a safe environment where they can grow, gain independence and take risks.”—Troy Glover, the director of the University of Waterloo’s Healthy Communities Research Network

It’s pretty easy for those who have attended camp to speak enthusiastically about how much it’s meant to them. Campers themselves are full of glowing stories about their summer camp experiences, but even adult camp alumni, many years later, can trace aspects of their personal success back to their time at camp.

For others, though, how camp provides these important benefits, and what types of benefits to expect from a summer camp experience, are not apparent. It was this fact —the general public’s unawareness of what makes camp great for children— that prompted a team of Canadian researchers to study and evaluate the impact of a camp experience.

Working with camp directors, staff, campers and camp alumni, the researchers conducted surveys and compiled observations focused on what a summer camp provides and how that affects children over their time at camp. Read about the study, its background and findings, on this Web site.

The research aimed to demonstrate and understand the initial, intermediate, and long-term value of the summer camp experience, and found several significant outcomes. Most importantly, the study was able to pinpoint what “children first learn at camp, what they do with that learned material and what impact it then has on who they become.” The researchers were able to identify 5 main areas of this growth.

There is, of course, quite a bit to explain about each of these areas, so I encourage you to read more about the study’s findings on their site. Also, there is a nice article about the study, complete with great quotes from camp directors, campers and staff members, published in Vaughan Today.

This is exciting stuff! We’ve often discussed the benefits of camp for children, so it’s nice to see this kind of organized, methodical verification. Now spread the word! Let’s help others understand how uniquely “camp is a place for kids to grow.”

90th Year Reunion a Great Success

What an amazing weekend! It was 3 days bathed in absolutely perfect weather, decorated with fond memories relived, and filled to the brim with laughter and conversation among friends… a camp reunion to remember. Rick and his crew took great care of us by serving wonderful meals, including several fresh yummy desserts baked by Alison. Everyone stayed busy on Saturday hiking to Kilroy’s Cabin, climbing the Alpine Tower, making pottery, shooting archery, and zipping down the water slide at the lake, but perhaps most enjoyably, spending a lot of time relaxing amid the beauty of Rockbrook.

Here is a group photo we took after lunch on Saturday (click the photo for a larger version). We also took lots of photos all weekend long and have published them here: 2011 Alumnae Reunion Photos. Take a look!

Stay tuned to our Alumnae Blog for more updates about the reunion. There are many wonderful moments to recount.

Thanks to everyone who attended the reunion. We always enjoy welcoming former campers back to the “Heart of a Wooded Mountain.” It won’t be long before we do it again!

It Starts with People

Everyone likes taking pictures, but at a place like Rockbrook where there is something wondrous or beautiful at every turn, it’s exciting to try and capture the experience in photography. The photography activity, or what we call “Photo Phun” around here, gives the girls a chance to explore and take— no make pictures all over camp. Jane, the lead instructor, starts them out by explaining how to use the digital cameras and when to select certain settings given what they’re shooting. She teaches them the basic notion of adjusting shutter speed and aperture relative to the amount of available light, for example, and how changing these settings affects the depth of field and motion effects. With this background, the girls will often head out to explore, looking for “cool photos.” To focus that sometimes, Jane will challenge them with a scavenger hunt where each photo has to have a different main color, or a represent a different letter in the alphabet. She’s taught them about stop motion photography and light painting as well. See why we call it “Photo Phun?”

You probably can also see why having a skilled, energetic and enthusiastic activity instructor is so important to the success of something like this. For Photo Phun to really be fun for the campers, Jane has to be both a skilled technician who really knows her stuff about photography, but also a creative teacher who enjoys working with kids. Rockbrook is full of great activity instructors like this. They instinctively know how to take something maybe a little technical, like archery, tennis, horseback riding, or rock climbing for example, and present it to the campers in a way that’s safe and informative, but also inherently fun. There are a few tricks to this that we present during our staff training week, but we also work hard to hire counselors who “get it” instinctively. Pull together a bunch of people like this, young women who love what they do, creatively and imaginatively, and who sincerely love being with kids, and you’ve got a sense of what makes the Rockbrook staff special.

Beyond the scheduled activities offered each day, it’s often the simplest things that mean the most to a girl when she’s here at Rockbrook. Playing tetherball on the hill at twilight, sitting in the sun on a huge rock by the lake, or racing your flip-flop down the creek— these can be the best memories of camp. Of course, the most important ingredient in everything at Rockbrook is the people, the incredible community of spirited folks who share camp together. They form the core of these memories. Certainly Rockbrook is a beautiful place and the activities are excellent, but it’s your cabin mates, your counselors and all the other support staff (Rick, Alison, Clyde, Elaine, Richie, Katie, Will, the many Directors and so many others) that truly make these little moments that add up to be “camp.” The magic of camp starts with people.

Tonight after dinner we sent word for everyone to dress up and come down to the gym for a surprise evening event. The girls must have been saving up costume elements because we saw amazing wacky wigs, goofy glasses, colorful dresses, boots and hats in any combination (There are some great photos of this in the gallery). When they arrived, they found the gym transformed into a game show, with our friend Bill Grimsley ready to host a trivia question and answer game using his podiums and scoring system. He randomly selected contestants from the audience, pitting girls from the same line against each other. Some of the questions were about Rockbrook, and others about pop music, TV and movies. Occasionally he would announce a “challenge round” where for extra points the contestants performed a task like hula hooping, or for the counselors, eating something “not so appetizing” like canned pig brains in gravy. Ugh! Of course, the audience thought this was hilarious. Prizes, like a giant cookie cake, went to cabin groups, and at times when the contestants were stumped and the audience knew an answer, the whole crowd won a little treat. Silly and oh so good!

Activities Galore at Rockbrook

Monday was quite eventful around Rockbrook Camp as our Third Session campers tried their first set of daily activities. They will do these chosen activities for three days and then have the opportunity to try a whole other set for the second half of the week. We have seen over the years that this concept of choice while away from home is a wonderful way to encourage independence and growth for every camper.

Two extra morning highlights included muffin break and free swim. Our resident baker Allison had wonderful chocolate sprinkle muffins waiting for the girls between first and second period. Then after second period, most girls headed down to the lake for a dip after this warm morning. They had their first opportunity to go on the water slide and swim laps for our Mermaid Club. With all of these bust active girls, there were smiles everywhere down at the lake!

After rest hour this afternoon, activities continued and our first white water rafters left for an overnight camp out experience at our Nantahala Outpost. Another group will join them tomorrow on the river for a day trip. As the only camp with an outpost at the Nantahala River, we love being able to let each camper decide which length of trip she would like to participate in.

We did have a little rainstorm this afternoon, but we did not let it slow us down. One of our favorite songs here at camp is the “Dewcoat Song.” We just think of rain as a little dew and keep on going! As we all filed into dinner, campers were greeted with a camp favorite: hotdogs with all the sides and fixings followed by key lime pie for dessert.

Even our youngest campers have the opportunity to weave on our Appalachian looms

Great new friends who met yesterday!

We hope that every camper picked up a new skill today, whether it be making a friendship bracelet, walking a horse or talking with a new friend. Each of these qualities is what makes Rockbrook so special and the campers will continue to build upon during the rest of their session here.

A Celebratory Sunday at Rockbrook

Sundays at Rockbrook always bring a great relaxing spirit to our campers through our chapel service, all-camp assembly on the hill, surprise afternoon event and movie night. This final Sunday of 2nd Session has been one of the best of 2011!

The morning began with breakfast in our pajamas and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The dining hall was full of smiles for this one. Just after breakfast, our campers donned their camp uniforms and finished their cabin chores just in time for flag raising and chapel. Today’s theme was “It’s a Small World” led by our Junior Line campers. Campers sang songs and talked about what this theme meant to them. The overall consensus seemed to be that Rockbrook is the perfect place to learn about our similarities and differences to other girls from all over the world. We are very lucky to have girls from across the United States and from many other countries, including England, Mexico, Switzerland, Colombia, Ireland and beyond.

The annual Miss RBC Pageant took place this afternoon. It started with the talent portion followed by a question and answer session. The entire camp was quite impressed by the talent that turned out today. We saw square dancing (they must have picked that up last night at the High Rocks Square Dance), a Harry Pottery rewrite of Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way,” gymnastics, and two original songs written by campers. The cabin crowned Miss RBC was Junior Three. They sang and danced to a song written by camper Nicoletta. The whole audience was amazed!

Also, the HUPs left late today for their three day adventure trip with Jeff and Jerry. They will spend the next few days trying various adventure activities in the area. Tonight’s movie was Ramona and Beezus. What a hit for girls of all ages here at camp! It wrapped up with cookies and milk.

Monday will bring our last set of activities for our 2nd and Mini 2 Session campers. Oh, how it has flown by! The morning will also include a Looking Glass Rock climbing trip and a tennis tournament with Camp High Rocks. We know our Rockbrook girls will do great and have a blast!

Zumba Night

Today was a return to regular activities after our celebration yesterday. Rockbrook girls of all ages were happily back building and glazing pottery, shooting arrows, bullets and basketballs, climbing our Alpine Tower and Castle Rock, riding horses, and making all kinds of arts and crafts. The giant beach ball saw some action and the tennis courts stayed busy. Every activity area, especially the lake, had a group of enthusiastic girls chatting and having fun.

Like most weekdays, we also offered an optional out-of-camp trip today. That’s how we do trips; they are announced in advance so girls can decide to go if they want to. Going on a trip means missing their scheduled activities while away, so considering a trip is a real exercise in choice, a concrete chance to learn that selecting one thing means neglecting another. Today Michelle guided a busload of girls on a hike up to the top of Looking Glass Rock for a picnic lunch. This is a gorgeous trail winding past tall trees, over exposed rock slabs, and through thick rhododendron groves. It’s about 3 miles of mostly up hill hiking, but ends with a huge payoff— a 180-degree overlook view of the mountains across a deep valley below. It did start to rain, even hard at times, on the way back, but the girls still had great fun hiking (downhill thankfully!) even when wet.

This seems to be tour season at Rockbrook because we’ve given several tours of camp everyday this week. Part of that is probably because families are traveling over the Fourth of July holiday, but they also have heard about Rockbrook from a friend and wanted to check it out. In a couple of cases, they were alumnae who wanted to introduce their daughter or granddaughter to Rockbrook It’s always great fun for us to show people around Rockbrook, to meet some of our counselors (“They’re all so nice!” one mom said), and to see camp full of life. There are lots of friendly faces and excited children to meet, and occasionally, with the right timing, a yummy, freshly baked muffin to eat!

Tonight’s optional twilight activity was a dance party of sorts down in the gym. Actually it was a “Zumba” workout session set to the pop music of Lady Gaga. Think aerobics, coordinated group movement, but with modern music and beats. Elizabeth, Austin and Frampton kept the whole crowd of girls moving as they taught the group different spins, jumps and kicks to go along with the music. It’s all very high energy and exhilarating. It might be surprising, but for excited girls, there’s nothing like a little heart-pounding exercise right after dinner. Plenty of girls chose to hang out instead of joining the Zumba party, with all the lines coming together for their evening programs. Skits, more dressing up, plenty of laughing and giggling, and a homemade cookie with milk before bed. Another real Rockbrook day.

Doubling Friends

One of the great things about coming to a sleepaway summer camp is the way the environment, the setting, and the culture of the place, all encourage kids to make friends. We’re really seeing this these days at Rockbrook, as obvious groups of laughing girls seem to always be together, to be signing up for activities together, and grabbing muffins together at “muffin break.” We’ve talked about the importance of camp friends before, but it’s so obvious to notice in action. These girls are sharing so many wonderful experiences, meeting so many nice people who are relaxed and open, and exploring the outdoors together, it’s just an ideal setting to forge meaningful relationships. Away from the more rigid expectations of school and their school peers, and immersed in a place like this where you can be your true self, camp is a magical place where girls easily make true friends.

This morning we were treated to amazing mountain weather with a little fog and low 60s when we woke up and then bright sunshine throughout the day. It made our morning activities in camp and our out of camp trips (a waterfall hike and a rock climb) just perfect. The girls were finishing up their first set of activities today, so it was great fun to dig deeper into camp. Shooting a real gun, making a cool new pottery mug, learning a few yoga poses, and climbing up a 100ft tall rock. Pause for muffin break… today “Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin.” Then, we’re off for more adventure, sports, arts and horseback riding, sprinkled with a good dose imagination.

The afternoon, it being Wednesday, brought “Cabin Day,” a time each week when we stick together as a cabin group for activities instead of breaking up and following our individual activity schedules. Groups of girls were playing games on the hill, taking hikes to Castle Rock, swimming at the lake, making baskets and others enjoying smoothies in the dining hall… all great ways to build cabin camaraderie. Later in the afternoon, the entire Senior line took a trip into Pisgah to visit Sliding Rock. We waited until later so the crowds would be gone and we could have the rock for ourselves, which turned out to be a good idea since we had 85 people in our group! Most of the girls slid down 4 or 5 times, until we all got hungry enough for a picnic supper (some of Rick’s homemade salads— potato, egg, chicken and pimento cheese —on croissants, fruit and Alison’s lemon bars.  It felt so good to be out in the forest together enjoying each others company and good food after the big (and chilly!) adventure of Sliding Rock.  And to top it all off, we just had to stop at Dolly’s for a cone of their fantastic ice cream, the Rockbrook Chocolate Illusion being a favorite flavor.  An awesome trip.

First Round of Activities

Monday at Rockbrook brought great excitement as our July campers tried out their first set of activities. Each girl is currently enrolled in four activities of her choice. The activities range from crafty to dramatic to adventurous-something for every camper! Despite the afternoon rain shower, activities went on as scheduled and lots of fun was had.

In addition to our delicious meals in the dining hall, our camp baker Allison had warm chocolate chip muffins ready this morning and cookies and milk for us tonight at Evening Program. These always set a great mood at camp! Just wait; you’ll be hearing about the muffins at camp.

During first and second free swim campers had their first opportunity to try out the new slide at the lake. Official names have been flying in, and we will reveal the new name later this summer. The comments upon exiting the slide ranged from silly to exhilarating to slippery to just plain fun. And they keep going over and over again. You’ll have to ask how many times your daugher was able to go down while here.

Tomorrow will be a day of rafting for our Middlers and Seniors over at the Nantahala River. Half the girls went over to our outpost this evening for a camp-out and will get on the river bright and early in the morning. The rest of the rafters scheduled for tomorrow will leave after breakfast for a day trip. They will get on the river just after lunch. It will be an adventurous ride with all of our experienced guides leading the group down the river.

This is big, big fun.