An Atlanta Winter

We’ve received another winter wonderland photo submission! Camper Anna Grace, an Atlanta resident, sent us a photo of her winterized hometown. How beautiful are those clouds? That sunset is pretty spectacular too! This photo reminds us of Twilight time after dinner, when you can play games and hang out on the hill with your friends before Evening Program.

What’s your favorite time of day at camp? Is it early in the morning, when the air is cool and you’ve got a day full of fun ahead? Or is it Free Swim, when you’re speeding down the water slide into the lake? Or maybe it’s whenever your favorite activity period is– Riflery? Pottery? Tennis? Whatever you choose to do on any given day at Rockbrook, you’re going to find yourself exploring new things, mastering new skills, and most importantly, having a ton of fun.

Camp Life is Handmade

There was a little bit of Potter Mania at Rockbrook today. Marking the release in theaters of the final Harry Potter film, we decided to decorate RBC in all things HP. We of course had plenty of campers and counselors dressing up as characters from the series— lots of maroon and gold, green and black stripes, Harry Potter shaped eye glasses, and lightning bolt shaped scars (drawn with dark eye liner or paint) on dozens of foreheads. Some of the campers clearly planned for this day because their costumes included more elaborate hats, capes, wigs and make up. Girls were decorating magic wands, and carrying them around, would shout out spells now and then with a sly giggle and in their best English accent. Several of the counselors and the Hi-Ups really pulled out the stops by decorating the dining hall like the Great Hall of the Hogwarts Castle: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw, all represented. The equestrian staff even put together a game of Quiddich for the girls, keeping the theme going. This involved riding around a series of cones and, from atop their horse, trying to toss a small ball through a hula hoop at one end of the ring. The whole day was very imaginative and fun.

You may have noticed this from checking the online photo gallery, but one of the neat things about life at Rockbrook is how much time the campers here spend doing things with their hands. Everywhere the girls are making things, building things, and decorating things. All of the arts and crafts activities are examples of this (weaving, painting, sewing, ceramics, etc.), but so are the adventure activities (climbing and paddling, e.g.), the sports (archery and riflery, e.g.) and even the horseback riding. These girls are working with all kinds of physical materials, manipulating, shaping and arranging real, not virtual, things. They are, in this way, connecting to the physical world, often to nature, and to their own sensations and feelings.

What’s important about this “hands on” experience central to camp life is how much the girls really love it. This may be because the rest of the year lacks the same opportunity for kids to do much with their hands, and it’s simply novel and fun, but it could also be because camp is feeding a hunger. Perhaps kids need chances to work with their hands, to make things, to forge real connections with the physical world, and modern life, with its pre-processing of almost everything, is making “hand work” (working “by hand”) less common. The manual character of camp is satisfying an important need kids don’t even know they have. Instead, they simply know it’s really fun, really satisfying, to make stuff, whether it be a clay pot, a tie dye t-shirt, or even a magic wand. Maybe, we as human beings need this kind of manual experience, and we’ve forgotten it. Thankfully, there is camp to remind our children! As they grow older, we can hope they’ll remember the satisfaction they gained from working with their hands at camp. If so, I suspect they’ll be happier.

All Fun Camp Activities

The first day of camp is one where everyone launches into the regular in-camp activities. After selecting their first set of four (2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon) the day before, it’s fun to see the girls divide up into lots of little groups and head off to the different parts of camp where activities are held. This could be one of our 100-year-old log cabins, one of our stone meeting lodges, “hiker’s rock,” the gym, the lake, the equestrian center, or the alpine tower. The whole camp gets busy and spreads out to have fun! Naturally, during the sign up process, the girls often sign up for things because their friends have also selected a certain activity, but also because it’s something new this year, or it’s something they’ve always wanted to try. During this regular activity time at camp, if you wander around, you’d be amazed by what the girls are doing. Just about everywhere you look, there’s something cool going on.

Girls swimming in the lake, making pottery, learning a new dance, shooting arrows, painting and drawing, playing dodge ball, canoeing, kayaking, climbing and riding horses. The list goes on!

Today at “Muffin Break” (the 15 minutes between 1st and 2nd period) we all enjoyed a classic blueberry muffin. Did you know that our kitchen has a baker, Liz? She makes all of our muffins, cookies, and desserts each day from scratch. It’s always the talk of camp to find out what kind of muffin she’s made for us that day. What a treat!

The other big event today was our “Swim Demonstrations.” Ordinarily, we do these on the opening day of camp, but yesterday a couple of afternoon thunderstorms made that difficult, so we postponed to today when the weather was excellent, sunny and warm. The swim demo is an exercise where each camper demonstrates her swimming ability to the water front staff. This involves swimming about 60 yards and treading water for 30 seconds. Doing this well earns a red buddy tag with your name on it and permission to swim in the lake without a life vest. If a camper can’t quite do this with confidence, the swimming staff will offer her swimming lessons and in the meantime restrict her to the shallow part of the lake and require she wear a life jacket. We don’t insist anyone go swimming while at camp, but if they want to swim or go on any water-related trips (whitewater rafting, for example), they must “pass” the swim demo.

One of my favorite times at camp is right after dinner, during the hour we call “Twilight.” It’s just a bit of free time between dinner and the start of evening program, or some other all-camp event. But it always feels so good. The sun sets on the hill, there’s often a cool breeze and the girls are free to play in the creek, play tetherball or simply hang out. We also always offer one or two optional activities during Twilight, like tonight when Becky led group games down on the archery field and Molly took a group of girls down to work on the garden. These are optional, but still nice if you’re looking for something to do.

Camp is off to a great start. Be sure to check the photo gallery each day to see more of what’s going on. You can also follow us on Twitter for little snips of camp life.

Activities for Everyone

The first day of activities this session is full speed ahead with all of the activities ready for action. As we all enjoyed perfect summer weather (warm during the day and cool at night), campers were making pottery, designing weaving projects, and decorating their first pillow case. A few girls also went rock climbing with Clyde, our adventure director. Girls shot arrows and guns, did flips at gymnastics and cannonballs at the lake. Down at the equestrian center, Cara had girls up and riding.

Halfway through the morning at our “Muffin Break,” everyone ran for a treat freshly baked by Liz. We look forward to seeing what flavor she makes for us everyday. Today, lemon.

After rest hour, Jerry, Jessi, Tara and Michelle took a big group of campers on a hike to Kilroy’s Cabin. This is a special hike to a remote part of the Rockbrook property that first takes you to Castle Rock where you can rest and enjoy the amazing view of the French Broad river valley. From there, the hike is a bushwhack through the forest with no trail as a guide. Jerry knows the way, but few others can find the old abandoned cabin. Kilroy’s Cabin is the center of an elaborate, and maybe a little bit spooky, story told at camp. I’ll save the details for later, but it involves a nurse with red hair, love, jealousy and a car crash late one stormy night on a slippery bridge. Ooooooooo. (cue eery music!).

For dinner, a classic camp favorite was served— spaghetti with red sauce. In addition to the salad bar, each table had a bowl of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and basil, and warm bread. It really hit the spot after our action-packed day. But that’s pretty normal for Rockbrook. Camp is action!

Camp Rifle Shooting

The riflery activity at camp, target rifle shooting, is something that really grows on you. Once you learn the safety rules at the rifle range, and get used to the basic techniques (not to mention the sound and smell of guns going off!), what can you do to improve your shot at camp?

Well, here are two important tips for shooting well. First, you need to have smooth trigger control. Learn to apply slow, consistent pressure to the trigger of the rifle so you can fire it without jerking. Squeezing the trigger quickly or erratically will definitely throw off your aim and mess up your shot. Next, it’s just as important to control your breathing when shooting, to take deep slow breaths rather than quick or hurried breaths. Here too, breathing too rapidly can make it difficult to aim steadily. Holding you breath just before pulling the trigger can help. Overall the goal here is to hold really still so you can make very small adjustments while aiming your rifle.

Back at camp you’ll have plenty of time to practice your shooting.

We Love Camp Dances!

It’s been a long tradition at Rockbrook to spend an evening or two each session having a camp dance with a local boys camp. Just like in the movies, our girls will travel over to the boys camp, or the boys will come over to Rockbrook. We’ll set up a sound system in the gym, get dressed up and dance around to music selected by the CITs. Over at High Rocks, the boys camp over the mountain from us, we held the dance last summer, which was a square dance, outside on their tennis courts. When we go to Camp Carolina, the other boys camp in town, they clear out their dining hall for the dancing.

These dances are always very exciting for the girls, partly because they are so infrequent, but also because they involve boys. Since Rockbrook is an all girls camp, having boys around is infrequent too! Of course this can make things a little nervous and awkward at first, but once everyone gets moving, both the girls and the boys relax and have fun.

When you’re really dancing, it’s all smiles. We love camp dances!

Junior Hiking Trip

Talley and Jessi took a bunch of Junior campers on a really cool day hike this week. They packed a lunch and drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike along a section of the Art Loeb trail. They made it all the way to the top of Black Balsam Knob (6214 ft) and Tennent Mountain (6040 ft)! This is a true “above the clouds” experience, as these are some of the highest peaks east of the Mississippi river. Fortunately, the weather was awesome so the girls could see for miles.