Spotlight on Sarah

Sarah Reed Carter is the Director of Rockbrook. She grew up in Winston-Salem, NC and began her Rockbrook career in 1985. Sarah thought it would be fun to be a CIT (Counselor in Training) while her older sister was a cabin counselor. So at 16, she had her first camp experience not realizing what a big part of her life Rockbrook would be years later.

Sarah returned to camp year after year while attending Trinity College in Connecticut and until starting graduate school at Vanderbilt University for her Masters of Education degree. She taught drama, worked as a lifeguard, and served almost every age group as a cabin counselor. Along the way, she met her future husband Jeff, who at the time worked as a hiking and climbing guide for camp. Sarah and Jeff were married at Rockbrook in 1996.

For the next 8 years, Sarah taught elementary school in Nashville, TN, Concord, NC, and Asheville, NC.  After returning to Brevard, she became the director of a local preschool for 2 years before returning to Rockbrook to be a full-time director with Jeff.

While camp is in session, Sarah oversees camp life and communication with parents.  During the off-season, she works on camper recruitment, communication with Rockbrook’s camp families, and child specific issues.  She also loves spending time with Jeff and her two daughters Eva and Lily.

It's Easy to Make Friends

When a girl goes to school, chances are she interacts mostly with kids her own age. Both in class and out, her opportunities to make friends don’t reach very far from the other kids in her grade level. When coming to camp, however, a girl spends time with other girls both younger and older than she; pre-teens make friends with young girls, older teens become natural leaders for the younger girls, and so forth. Likewise, all of the campers really get to know the camp counselors, who are generally young women in college or recently graduated from college. And when you consider the senior camp staff, there is a huge age range of people at camp all living together as a community.

The social benefits of this multiage experience are significant. Not only is it more like the real world, but research has shown multiage settings help girls feel less pressure to be competitive with other girls, and this makes it much easier to make friends.

When you think about camp, this makes perfect sense because it really is a special place where teens don’t have to be the “best” to be liked. No matter what, you’ll make really good friends, even if they are a little older or younger.

Charlotte Camp Party

Loads of summer camp fun down in Charlotte! Yesterday Sarah traveled down to visit with our Charlotte NC girls, show the new Rockbrook movie and slides from this past summer, and meet some new girls interested in finding out more about camp. Since these camp parties are both mini reunions and information sessions, they are great ways to recharge your Rockbrook Spirit and learn what makes RBC so special.

At the party Sarah saw Katy Beltz, Rhonda Aucamp, Lisa Neely and Kristen Boye— all moms who attended Rockbrook when they were younger. In fact Kristen and Sarah were co-counselors at RBC back in 1992!

A special thanks to the Beltz family for hosting the party.  There’s Elizabeth and her two sisters Caroline and Margaret, and Gracie G. and Elizabeth A. too!

Those Charlotte summer camp girls really know how to get excited!

Outdoor Painting Fun

One of the camp art projects available for the girls at Rockbrook is painting.  As part of our arts program, the painting and drawing activity is always popular.  When the weather is dry, we’ll often meet for this activity outside, somewhere on the camp property that offers a unique subject or inspiring view.  It’s so nice to be outside with your friends working on your painting, getting the colors right, thinking about the composition, and experimenting with different textures.  These kinds of crafts and arts projects turn out awesome!

And of course, at camp there’s always a chance to add dressing up to any activity. “Let’s put on our most colorful clothes when we go to Painting.”

Learn to Knit at Camp

Can I learn how to knit at camp?

You sure can!  In fact, knitting has become one of the crafts at camp girls are really enjoying.  You might think it’s old fashioned or something that only your grandmother would do, but knitting is really cool!  And it’s not that hard to learn.  With some basic pointers and a little practice you’ll be able to make a simple scarf, or even something more difficult like a hat.

The younger girls particularly like using the “Nifty Knitters.”  These are special round, handheld looms that make knitting tubes really easy (there’s one on the shelf in the background in the photo).  They are a fun way to see how knitting works and to make quick progress on a project before moving on to using knitting needles.

Knitting is one of those great crafts girls can easily do at home.  It can easily become a life-long activity to enjoy for years to come.

Camp is Open !!!

We’ve all been waiting, been busy preparing, and been ready for the longest time, but finally it’s here. Rockbrook is open for the summer! It’s going to be fabulous, and we’re all incredibly excited! Let the fun begin! Yeah!

A Sunset View From Camp

Here’s a classic photo that’s been circulated around a bit. It’s girls enjoying a sunset view from the top of Castle Rock at camp. A girl at an overnight summer camp can look forward to some incredible sunsets, and when she’s in the mountains of western North Carolina, there are also amazing long-range views too. It’s just another one of the great things we look forward to each summer!

Georgia Girls

Being so close to Georgia, we always have a lot of Georgia girls attend Rockbrook, and you might guess that the city in Georgia that sends us the most girls is Atlanta. After that, Douglasville, Alpharetta, and Savannah are the next top Georgia cities. There really is a long tradition of girls from Georgia looking for camps in the mountains of North Carolina.

P.S. This is a photo of our Gerogia Girls from first session last summer.