Closing Campfire

Each session, the Hi-Ups, our oldest (10th grade, 16-year-old) campers, go on a three-day outdoor trip with Jeff. It’s a special trip packed with adventure, really great food, and time to relax and enjoy being together. It’s impossible to mention all the highlights, but they include things like wake boarding, waterfall hiking, camping, swimming, rock climbing, and cliff jumping. At one point, the girls swam up to a waterfall and climbed up several rock ledges to pass through the falling water into a small cave behind. The pounding cold, cold water and the roar of the waterfall made this such an intense feeling. When jumping into the lake from different heights, we could always count on hearing big happy screams. And the food… steak burritos and burgers for dinners, lunches of sandwiches and wraps, and eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes… Yum!

This session our camp-wide musical was Schoolhouse Rock, and today was the big performance for everyone at camp. This is a wonderful play that has lots of parts and plenty of familiar songs making it easy to includes campers of all ages. Based on the popular TV series, we heard A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing, Three is a Magic Number, Conjunction Junction, and several others sung by different groups of girls. The audience was thrilled to several solos and plenty of dancing, really giving several girls a chance to ham it up!

The final event tonight was our closing campfire, the “Spirit Fire.” This is a tradition that goes back to the very beginning of Rockbrook. It’s a special campfire attended by the whole camp dressed in their “whities” (camp uniform and red tie), and is a chance to sing songs, recognize and reflect upon everything we’ve accomplished over the session. Girls take turns speaking about their time at camp, and about what Rockbrook has come to mean for them over the years. It’s a wonderful, calm time to remember our camp friends, as well as the fun and excitement shared during the session. To end the Spirit Fire all the campers and counselors light a small white candle from the central campfire and then stand together for a last couple of songs. With all the lights off in camp, with the sounds of the creeks and crickets, and with the whole camp softly singing by candlelight, this is just beautiful, and a very special time.

Second Session Final Day

The final full day of a camp session is always a mix of emotions, partly the business of packing and finishing projects, but also a chance for savoring time with friends and enjoying being at Rockbrook. The morning is filled with several special events for the girls. This is the day, for example, when the girls receive their pottery pieces after being fired. It’s the first time they get to see how the glazing has turned out, whether the colors worked as they expected, and as you can see, there was great success.

Also this morning, we took our riflery, archery and tennis “teams” over to Camp Carolina to challenge them in tournament. The activity instructors at Rockbrook selected several girls from each age group to go and compete. It’s a lighthearted affair that finishes up with a quick dip in the lake. This year the girls gave a good showing in tennis and riflery, and won the archery competition! The older girls put on a little combat face paint to add a little intimidation to the mix. Looks like it worked…

Meanwhile, down at the horseback riding center, Cara and her staff present the session’s “Horse Show.” This is a chance for our riders to perform for the rest of the camp. Everyone dresses up, horses and campers alike. We saw so many jumps, riding in formation, and complex patterns among several riders. It’s really a festive atmosphere, complete with popsicles for everyone toward the end.

Today is also the day when we present the camp musical, this year Annie. Weeks of work go into this performance— casting, rehearsals, practicing the songs, learning lines, building scenery, designing costumes and making it all come together. With more than 50 people involved, this is a real challenge! We invite parents of the main cast members to attend the performance and the entire camp packs the gym to see it as well. There’s so much talent, it’s really impressive. If you didn’t get to see it, don’t worry because we taped it so it can be included in the DVD yearbook.

The Spirit Fire closes the day. Since Rockbrook’s very first year, this has been a very special time at camp everyone looks forward to. It’s when everyone dresses in their uniform and gather’s around the fire ring on Vesper Rock for a program of songs, tributes, memories, and recognitions. It’s a time for appreciating each other and the good times we’ve spent together these past few weeks. It’s an opportunity to reflect on what camp has meant to each person over the years, and perhaps to express those feelings to the whole group by coming to the front to speak. Without fail there are tears of joy as girls hug and talk about their love for each other and for Rockbrook. The Spirit Fire is a time when it’s so clear how important camp is to these girls, how they have grown here and learned to be their best selves, to realize they can do so much, and be so good. It’s absolutely remarkable.

The final day of camp provides so many concrete accomplishments. Throughout the weeks of camp, these Rockbrook girls create wonderful and amazing things… They acquire surprising skills and talents… They find some of their very best friends… And, more than ever before, feel proud and confident about who they are.

Camp is the next 'High School Musical'

Did you see that the next “High School Musical” might be about summer camp? It’s true! Peter Barsocchini, the main writer for our favorite Disney Channel show with Zac and Vanessa, is set to begin filming in Malibu a pilot TV show about sleepaway camp. It’s supposed to be a comedy and will air on Nickelodeon. Beyond that, we can only guess what the show will be about and who will be starring in it. No doubt, though, there will be plenty of funny camp situations that the characters find themselves in— pranks, daily silliness, and the sort of camp crushes that happen at co-ed summer camps. As you know, camp is one of those places where you tend to laugh your head off, so this could be good!

Barsocchini is using the slogan, “Camp is why kids invented summer.” Well, we could also say, camp is what makes summer for kids. If you’ve been to Rockbrook, it’s just not summer without it.

Last Summer's Camp Drama Production

This past summer our camp drama production was You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Based on the popular Broadway musical comedy, this “kids version” of the play still has great music, singing, and story lines. It of course features many of the characters made famous by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip Peanuts. There’s Snoopy and his doghouse, Linus and his blanket, and Lucy and her “psychiatrist” stand. In the story, Charlie Brown hopes to discover what it means to be a “good man,” and in the end, after many challenges and setbacks, realizes that it means doing your best. The kids at camp had a great time producing the play and performing it for the entire camp. Even a few parents of the cast members attended the performance. It was a really cute show.

Summer Camp Musical

Last year our summer camp musical was Into the Woods. Each summer we select a musical for the girls to produce, practice and perform at the end of the main sessions, and in 2008 it was this wonderful play by Stephen Sondheim. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a story that integrates aspect of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Bean Stalk, and Rapunzel. With so many characters involved, it’s a great summer camp drama production because so many campers can have a part, even a singing part. Then the girls are also designing and making costumes, painting scenery, and pulling together all the details of the play. It’s always a treat to see the wide range of talents the Rockbrook campers can show off.

In the next few weeks we’ll be considering different plays for this summer’s camp sessions. If you have any suggestions, let us know in the comments.

Drama Camp Fun

Can you tell what these girls are doing? Does it look “dramatic?” Do they seem to be “acting” with “feeling?” Maybe they’re in a “play?” Those certainly are intense “expressions.” Their posture really tells a story. That’s right it’s girls from the Rockbrook camp Drama activity! All the performing, the impersonating, the charades, the improvisation, the comedy and the emotions of a scene— signing up for Drama is great fun. It can be kind of silly at times, but that’s part of camp too.

P.S. That’s the Junior Lodge fireplace in the background of this photo.