Sleep Away Camp Girls

When you ask people who attended a sleep away camp when they were a kid, you’ll find that they recall the experience, not only fondly, but also as one of the most important things they did as a child. A famous example here is Michael Eisner and his book about camp. There’s a lot to it, and we’ve discussed the benefits of attending camp before, but this photo speaks to the empowerment and self confidence girls often develop at summer camp. Being away from home and parents, being challenged and succeeding in different activities, and being friends with so many different types of people— all weave together to give camp its secret power.

Local Summer Camp

It’s always great to see local kids attend camp. Even though they might be from the Brevard, Asheville or Hendersonville area, going to a sleepaway camp like Rockbrook is still great fun. Plus, when you think of “local” meaning within a 3 or so hour drive, we have A LOT of “local” kids attending camp. That’s because Rockbrook Camp is located between several major cities: Charlotte and Winston-Salem (NC), Atlanta (GA), Knoxville (TN), and Columbia (SC). Rockbrook summer camp kids come from all over!

Outdoor Kids Activities

Do you see the tiny bug on her finger? When you come to summer camp and spend so much time outdoors, you can bet you’ll run into some kind of cool spider, fly, ant, caterpillar, moth or butterfly just about every day. It’s almost an activity by itself— finding and learning about all of the different insects out there in the woods at camp. Some are little “creepy” looking (like these stink bugs !), and some you might not want to pick up (like this one we’ve spotted at camp before), but most are really interesting and neat to see.

Crossword Puzzle Answers!

The wait is over! Here are the answers to the Rockbrook Camp crossword puzzle we published in last month’s newsletter. Congratulations if you got everything correct, and even if you didn’t, we hope you had fun working on the puzzle and thinking about camp.

Summer Camps 4 Kids – Canoeing

Speaking of canoeing, it’s still a summer camp activity we offer at Rockbrook. Like most of the adventure activities, we have a progression where kids first learn basic skills and safety procedures, and then move up to more challenging aspects. For canoeing, we learn the names and uses of the equipment (the boats and paddles, for example), then practice different paddling strokes and techniques to steer the canoes in the water. With all of that firmly in place, we’re off to one of the local rivers— the French Broad, the Green, the Tuckaseegee, or the Nantahala. Each offers its own unique challenges and whitewater thrills.

Children Camp

Here’s a photo from one of our special evening events… it’s “auction!” Each cabin group gets a bunch of play “Rockbrook Money” to spend by bidding on mystery prizes. The prizes are mysterious because some are exciting like some cookies or other yummy snack, and others are crazier like jumping in the lake with your clothes on, or wearing your hair in 10 pigtails, for example. All the prizes are fun, for sure, even if some might be maybe “more desirable.” Not knowing what your cabin is bidding on makes the whole event fantastic.

This photo shows an added twist from last summer. We all dressed up like we were on the TV show “survivor.” Lots of leaves, mud face paint, and camouflage, all around.

Summer Camp Kids Teen Fun

Remember the “Slip n’ Slide” ?! You take a summer afternoon, a hill, a big long piece of plastic, a water hose, a little baby soap, and whole bunch of your kids camps friends and you’ve got a crazy fun time. Just run as fast as you can and launch yourself down the slide. Of course the trick is to make it all the way to the end without rolling off the side!

Childrens Girl Camp

We just love this photo! It’s a great snapshot of what camp can be for children— outside on a warm summer evening, excitement about an upcoming activity, laughing about something silly, forgetting that your hair is totally messed up and just being with your new best friend.