Frampton Becomes Program Director

Everyone at Rockbrook is thrilled to announce that Catherine Frampton, affectionately know around here as simply “Frampton,” has accepted the full-time position of Program Director. She worked as the Assistant Program Director last summer, as a cabin counselor for several summers before that, and came to Rockbrook as a camper as well. With this solid camp experience, and with a freshly minted liberal arts degree from Sewanee, Frampton is bringing great skills and experience to her new job.

Frampton replaces Mandy Horton, who after holding this position for five years, has accepted a job working for Agnes Scott College in Atlanta as one of their student recruiters.

Here is a press release announcing Frampton’s new position. The news has spread far and wide!

Congratulations Mandy and Frampton!

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!

2011 Staff Arrive !!

Today marked the official start of Rockbrook’s 90th summer as we welcomed our cabin counselors and a few special staff members for the 2011 summer season. We all were very excited to welcome back so many former counselors (almost 80% returners) and to see such eager staff members newly hired for this summer. Throughout the afternoon, many old friends were reunited just as we enjoyed making new friends among the staff members.

We have a full week of orientation and training sessions planned, as well as some fun surprises to keep things lively. It’s an important week as we all focus on preparing for next week’s opening day of Rockbrook’s first camp session, and a great summer. We can’t wait!

Hello from Jessi Nixon

Last evening Mandy got to enjoy dinner with former Staff Director Jessi Nixon. Luckily, Jessi lives just down the road in Arden, NC. Jessi wanted to make sure that everyone got a big “Hello!” from her, and she is so happy that everyone is excited for summer 2011 at Rockbrook. Here are some quick updates on Jessi.

Former Staff Director Jessi Nixon

Jessi’s currently doing about a million different things. She is training for another mini-triathlon. Last year, she did her first one along with directors Mandy and Charlotte. So, she is spending lots of time in the pool and on the bike. She is living with a retired lady with whom Jessi spends lots of time and helps her around the house. Her graduate program in Charlotte is taking up a lot of her energy as well. Jessi is constantly on the road and cannot wait to begin her second semester in Christian Leadership. Her other main focus is her part-time job as one of the youth directors at a church in Arden. She continues to love working with youth and the directors team there.

If you would like to contact Jessi, let us know. She would love to hear any updates from our fabulous Rockbrook counselors!

Meet Jeff and Sarah

Meet Jeff and Sarah Carter, the owners and directors of Rockbrook. They are the dynamic couple that keep camp running so well, and are full of surprising talents and experience. For example, did you know that they are both educators with years of experience teaching elementary, middle, high school and college students? Did you know that they both began working at Rockbrook in the mid-1980s and continued to do so for more than 20 years now? Did you know that they met while working at Rockbrook and got married at camp (in the senior Lodge)? Did you know they are both musicians with Sarah playing fiddle and Jeff guitar? Did you know they are the parents of two girls, Eva and Lily? Well, it’s all true!

And there’s more to know, so hop over and learn more about Sarah, or learn more about Jeff. And then get in touch with them. They’d love to hear from you.

Directors Dress Up!

An Intergalactic Preacher, a Zombie Bride, Elmo and Cookie Monster? Wait, who are these people? It’s Jeff, Sarah, Mandy and Jessi!