A July Sunday

One way we punctuate the week at Rockbrook is to change the pace on Sundays. We follow a different schedule and plan special surprise events for the whole camp. It began today by sleeping in, which felt wonderful after the very full week we’ve been enjoying, but even better, the girls and their counselors came to breakfast in their pajamas and robes. Rick arrived much earlier in the kitchen and baked for us his yummy maple cinnamon coffee cake to complement the regular yogurt, cereal, and fresh fruit bars.

After breakfast the girls returned to their cabins to clean and sort things, as today is also the day laundry goes out. You can imagine how that might take a while! Around 10:30 the whole camp, dressed in their red and white uniforms, then assembled in cabin groups around the flagpole on the hill for a flag raising ceremony led by the Hi-Ups (10th graders). This included presenting the flag, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and singing “America the Beautiful.” As we stood in the bright morning sunshine, overlooking the Blue Ridge mountains in the distance, and flanked by the historic camp buildings, this was a very neat scene.

Next, the girls walked down the lower line to a special wooded area of camp for our chapel service. For years now Rockbrook has been explicitly non-denominational and ecumenical with no religious affiliation. It’s been a place where girls from all cultural and religious traditions (and non-religions!) can feel comfortable. Instead of specific religious texts or ideas, our chapel services are more thematic, focus on general human values (things like honesty, friendship and community), and are led by the girls themselves. For example, today the Middler line presented their chapel on “Simplicity” by leading several songs, reading a poem, and talking about what simplicity means to them. Sarah read (paraphrased actually) a short book to the girls called “Crispin: The Pig Who Had it All” by Ted Dewan. It’s about a spoiled pig who, instead of receiving the kind of big gifts he’s used to, gets an empty box from Santa. He naturally struggles with this at first, but in the end learns about imaginative play. Sarah connected it with camp, of course, noting how being at Rockbrook also encourages us to simplify (no technology!), yet equally inspires our imagination, sense of wonder and connections with others. The chapel is intended to be a quiet time for reflection and an opportunity to gather together as a camp community. It’s a nice balance to the zany fun we enjoy the rest of the week.

After lunch, which was a classic combination of baked ham (or tempeh), green beans and mashed potatoes, and after rest hour, which included a brief, welcome thundershower, the whole camp geared up for the Rockbrook Olympics. We divided into 3 teams, anticipating tomorrow’s holiday— red, white and blue —so that teams included girls from all three age groups. Each team, dressed and painted in their color, came up with a cheer and assigned participants for different relay events to be held down on the landsports field. We had a water balloon toss, a sack race, three-legged race, dizzy lizzy, spoon and egg carry, army crawl, sponge relay, frozen t-shirt thaw, a wheelbarrow race, and a huge, group hula hoop relay. The energy level was intense as everyone raced from one event to the next, stopping now and then for a drink or snack under the tents. For the final event, we all headed back up to the lake for a greased watermelon relay. Even more cheering! As is typical around here, we’re not really sure who “won” because we didn’t keep score. There’s just no need, and it’s really not that important, when you’re having this much fun playing and cheering everyone on.  So much fun!

Welcoming New Campers

Today we welcomed our new mini session campers to Rockbrook. These girls arrive a week after the first session campers, joining them for the remainder of the session. Since our mini sessions are a great way to sample camp life, many of these campers are either new to Rockbrook or are younger girls (or both). As they grow older and return a number of years, it’s most common to attend one the full sessions that last longer (though we certainly don’t require that).

After everyone arrived, checked in with the nurses and office folks, and got settled into the cabins, the entire camp assembled on the grassy hill in the heart of camp. We learned songs, got to meet all the directors (Sarah and Jeff, Charlotte, Mandy, Sofie and Catherine), and took several group photos. We tried to get a shot of every state’s and country’s campers, as well as a whole camp photo. Check out the RBC Photo Gallery to see those.

Lunch was another of Rick’s comfort food meals. He had a “breakfast for lunch” spread for us, with his homemade biscuits (the mound of cut butter he used to make them was amazing), scrambled eggs, bacon, veggie sausage, fresh fruit and yogurt… a good, familiar first meal for our mini session campers.

After lunch, the new campers launched right into their “swimming demonstrations” at the lake. All the lifeguards evaluated everyone’s swimming ability and assigned them a buddy tag. This process also gets the girls familiar with the lake rules and gives them a closer look at the water slide. Tours of the camp and cabin meetings took up the remainder of the rest hour.

The late afternoon event was a surprise carnival at the gym. Several of the counselors decorated with posters, streamers and balloons in a theme they called “Outer Space.” There were planets, aliens, stars and strange looking creatures all about. We also had an inflatable obstacle course and a zero-gravity velcro wall to bounce around on. Face painting, games (like the “Saturn’s Rings Toss”), music, dancing and cotton candy (space dust) added to the fun. Another brief shower got things a little muddy outside, but that just added to the thrill of it all.  This was a great event with lots of action to keep the girls busy, and a fun way to introduce our new campers to the zany side of Rockbrook.  Tomorrow all of the camp activities will be back in full swing.

Chapel and Miss RBC

Sundays are a different kind of day at Rockbrook. It’s also a day that is rich in camp tradition. Everyone slept in an extra hour, and then came to breakfast in their pajamas. In addition to yogurt, bagels, and cereal, there were also donuts! After breakfast, everyone headed back to their cabins to clean and get dressed in their “whities” for flag raising and chapel.

The Hi-Ups, the oldest campers who have special duties, raised the flag and led everyone in the pledge and “Oh, Beautiful.” Then, the CA’s, the girls that have been planning the secret end-of-session banquet, led the way down the Path of Silence to chapel and then stop to guard Cabin 9, where they have all of their Banquet decorations.

Sundays

The chapel theme this week was “sharing.” It was facilitated by the Juniors, who chose the songs, read poems and shared their thoughts on what sharing means to them. Many spoke about “sharing memories.” Another part of chapel is that anyone can bring an item that can be tied to the theme and talk about it. Today, campers brought a friendship bracelet, a crazy creek, a red tie that was passed down from their sister, and a few other things. To finish up, Sarah read “The Giving Tree” by Shel Siverstein and then led a discussion on how it relates to sharing.

After chapel, everyone met for Assembly on the Hill. The broom awards for the cleanest cabins are themed after the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria this year. Each week, Lineheads come up with impressive poems to announce the 3 winners! After the line songs, counselors got campers fired up about their last activity sign-up of the session by performing songs, funny skits, raps, and cheers for their activities.

For lunch we had Chili and cornbread with cheese and fresh guacamole. After lunch, everyone went back to their cabin for rest hour, and to get ready for Miss RBC!

Muppet Remix

Miss RBC is a campy, spoof-ish pageant in which cabins combine their talents in the hopes of winning the title. Cabins often come up with a dance routine, a comedy act, or a funny song. There are lots of costumes, too. Some memorable moments from today’s’ were one campers’ one-legged-crab-like push-ups, an African inspired dance, a Gingerbread Man and Little Mermaid “Fractured Fairytale,” and more. At the end, one representative comes up to the stage to answer wacky questions like, ” What does a Honosarius look like?” “Do you prefer crafting or rafting?’ Then, the CIT’s judged the winner – Penthouse!

The day concluded with Movie Night. The feature was “The Princess and the Frog.” Everyone enjoyed their milk and cookies in the gym and then went to bed.

Flashback to the 70s

Another quick photo post… Browsing through our archives, I found this picture labeled “August 1971.” It shows the Sunday morning flag raising ceremony, the girls gathered on the hill dressed in their uniforms, and the amazing view of the mountains we have at the center of camp. The Sunday uniforms are slightly different nowadays. Campers today wear white shorts, shirt and a red tie, but not red knee socks!

Is that an Oldsmobile in the background?