History

The last full day of our third session was today. After the upbeat excitement of the banquet last night, there was a different tone today. Instead celebrating with singing and dancing, we were more thoughtful. We slowed down and tried to savor the simple moments of camp. While packing we chatted with cabin mates. We admired each other’s finished pottery pieces. Some of us rode horses for the last time at the barn party. We watched the play performance. Mostly though, we simply wanted to spend time with our friends, to hang out with them, not really doing anything in particular. Each minute of the day seemed to include that feeling of it being precious time. We knew our days together were waning.

It’s a fact about camp life; we don’t want it to end. Especially during the 3rd session when school is right around the corner for most, we can’t help but lament the ending of what we love about camp: the relaxed pace, the freedom to decide things on our own, the constant support and encouragement from the community, the feeling of belonging and love that follows from being our true selves, all the action, and the refreshment from being outdoors so much… and yes, even the break from social media and screen-based entertainment. We love all this and more about camp— it provides so much joy —so on the last day, it’s a little sad to think about it coming to a close.

The Spirit Fire Tradition

This tone carried into the final campfire of the session, our “Spirit Fire.” The tradition of this ceremonial campfire started 100 years ago when Rockbrook was founded. With the whole camp gathered, it is a chance for everyone in the session to reflect a little about their time at camp. We sing traditional songs, and listen as campers and staff members take turns giving short speeches about what Rockbrook means to them. Tonight they talked about making quick friends, feeling at ease and at “home” after arriving here at Rockbrook, and also feeling incredibly grateful for all that camp has provided them over the last few weeks. There was a real awareness of how special this experience is, and how much they’ll miss it back home.

As the girls circled the lake holding their candles and singing softly, it was clear again that camp was just right. It provided the deep human connection we all needed, helping everyone feel happy and normal again. Such comfort and satisfaction to end our day, and our time together, it was a touching, sweet moment I think we’ll all remember fondly.

Let’s start with the food. It’s really been fabulous this summer, and today’s meals stand out.

Lunch was a chance to get creative as Rick and his crew provided an array of ingredients for everyone to make their own “breakfast sandwich.” Breakfast for Lunch! He had english muffins, with eggs and cheese, breakfast meats, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and an array of condiments. He served fresh local blackberries on the side. But for dinner, as part of our “centennial celebration,” Rick pulled out all the stops! He made fried chicken, mounds of mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh green beans, and homemade biscuits… 770 homemade, cut-by-hand, biscuits! What a meal! Then to top it off, let me introduce you to the dessert known around here as a “Rockbrookie.” Sydney, one of our bakers, invented these triple-layer bars: chocolate chip cookie on the bottom, a layer of Oreo cookie in the middle, and brownie on the top. One of a kind delicious!

Weaving in Curosty

Just about all day, and almost everyday, the looms in Curosty are in motion. Girls of all ages take turns sitting and working the warp and weft, using colorful yarns to weave swatches. Often, the girls keep these handmade pieces of cloth to use them as placemats or simple decorative pieces, but they can also be sewn into small pillows or bags.

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Counselor Hunt

After dinner tonight, we held a counselor hunt. This is a very popular all-camp activity where the staff members do their best to hide somewhere in camp and the girls travel around in the their cabin groups searching. Being so wooded, Rockbrook has loads of great hiding spots. Many counselors dress all in black, and often cover themselves with a trash bag. One actually hid inside a trash bag, inside a trashcan! Others hid inside canoes, or covered themselves with leaves. The girls have a great time racing around the camp searching for these hidden staff members. Some were found right away, and others not at all. When we rang the bell to signal the “all clear,” all but a handful were found. Each counselor hiding had a key that they gave to the cabin group who found them. Then out of all the keys, only one opened a “treasure box” that contained a few small gifts for the cabin. The cabin groups took turns trying their keys to see if theirs was the one. The box also revealed that later tonight we would have a fireworks show!

Fireworks for Rockbrook's 100th

When we show fireworks at camp, it’s a great time for the girls. They gather on the hill in their crazy creek chairs and look toward the sky above the lake. We launch from the lake, so when the colors burst in the sky, they are easily seen by the girls on the hill above. We play fun dance music, hand out glow sticks for everyone, and serve popsicles right before getting started. There’s nothing quite like fireworks to celebrate, and since it’s Rockbrook’s 100th birthday this year, this was perfect.

I’ll leave you with a short video clip of the show. You can just make out the singing and cheering over the sound of the explosions.

Today we welcomed another group of excited, eager girls to Rockbrook as we opened our second July Mini session. It started around 8:30am as cars began pulling into the riding center driveway, making their way through our new drive-through check-in procedure. After quick stops to meet folks from the office, Brittany the riding director, camp director Sarah Carter, and our team of nurses, it was time to drive up into camp and meet even more people. A mob of smiling, cheering counselors waited at the top of the hill also eager to get started with camp. The energy of camp— friendly, supportive, accepting and silly —was bubbling up right away. These campers, and some of the counselors too, have been waiting for two years to experience this energetic fun. Finally, we can get started!

First Day Adventures

Getting started means setting up the bunks, making beds, and of course getting to know the others in your cabin. It means, right away, tackling challenges with the support of your peers rather than your parents. Starting the first day of camp means feeling a little nervous but also relieved to find so many nice people in your cabin group. The first day of camp includes learning that the hill is steep when walking from the gym to the Junior line. It means discovering that the food at camp is delicious and plentiful, as giant platters of homemade mac-n-cheese made their way to the tables for lunch. Since we often like to spend time swimming at camp, the first day also means demonstrating your swimming ability in our mountain stream-fed, highly “refreshing” lake, and receiving your own tag for the tag board. Most importantly, this first day of camp marks the beginning of a great adventure, one filled with nature, relationships with caring people, meaningful conversations, and daily new experiences.

History of the Rockbrook Lake

Swimming in the Rockbrook lake is one of the unique treats at camp. 100 years ago when the camp was founded, the lake was smaller, perhaps one quarter its current size. Like all of the lakes in this area, it’s manmade, and relies on an earthen dam for it to exist. It was expanded in 1925 by digging a deeper section and building a larger dam. Men dug by hand and used horses to drag the dirt out. The lake has six very large boulders and many large trees around its perimeter giving it the feeling of an ancient swimming hole hidden in the forest. It’s rumored that when viewed from above, the outline of the lake is the shape of our mascot – a cardinal! There’s a fun 50-ft waterslide on one end, a dock and diving board on the other. One portion is more shallow, perfect for swimming laps or just playing in the water while standing up. It’s approximately 14 feet deep in the center. Throughout the day during activity periods, plus during the two “free swim” periods before lunch and dinner, girls are splashing and playing in the water. The lake is a very popular place to be at camp!

We’re very happy to have these new friends join the full session girls already at camp. With a full house again, we’ll have every activity in motion tomorrow, all of us happily getting busy. Since it’s camp, that’s the best kind of busy.

Let’s take a break, a “muffin break” and talk about that time each morning between the first and second activity periods when everyone in camp scurries back to the dining hall to sample the day’s freshly baked muffin. You might call it a “snack break” or a “mid-morning snack,” but around here everyone knows it as “muffin break.”

How Muffin Break Began

Sarah Carter invented the idea of muffin break more than a decade ago when she thought the girls needed a little something to nibble between breakfast (8:30am) and lunch (1:00pm). With all the action happening at camp, the girls were hungry by 11am! Sarah also knew that having something freshly baked was always a welcome treat. A baker herself, she thought, “why not muffins?”

Our head chef Rick Hastings took the idea and whipped it up to a different level, introducing novel flavors and hiring a dedicated baker as part of his kitchen staff. The baker starts early in the morning crafting the day’s muffins so they can be fresh out of the oven before 11am. This is quite a job too! On a regular day we bake 300 muffins to make sure everybody in camp, campers and staff alike, can have one. In addition, the baker makes a gluten-free version each day, adding to the overall number.

In typical Rockbrook fashion, there’s a fun element of surprise to muffin break, as well. The baker works hard to rotate the flavor of the muffins so we never know what “today’s muffin” will be. Walking up to the dining hall at the right time, in fact, you’re bound to hear that question, “What’s the muffin flavor?” The baker will sometimes invent flavors never before served. Over the years, I remember “key lime pie,” “tootsie roll,” and “s’mores.” Also though, there are standard flavors that by popular demand make regular appearances.

So without further ado, here are:

The Top 10 Muffin Flavors at Rockbrook:

1. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip
2. “Funfetti” (colorful sprinkles in a vanilla base)
3. Lemon Poppyseed
4. Blueberry
5. White Chocolate Cranberry
6. Oreo Cookie
7. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
8. Brown Sugar Banana
9. Mint Chocolate Chip
10. Cookie M&M

The exact order of these is highly debatable, with strong preferences breaking out when you ask campers about their favorites. Honestly they’re all good! The girls love being surprised with the day’s flavor and enjoying what the muffins taste like. So delicious!

Today marked the last full day of our first session. It’s always a bittersweet day as we wrap up longterm projects at camp, recognize much of what we’ve accomplished over the course of the session, and celebrate the new bonds of friendship we now cherish. We spent part of the morning packing and moving luggage. Many girls who rode enjoyed a barn party down at the Riding Center. We gathered in the gym to watch a performance of the play, a production that incorporated characters from Rockbrook and the idea of time travel. We also built a time capsule asking each cabin to select an item to add to the collection. Rockbrook girls in the future will probably be surprised to find stickers, bracelets, a surgical mask, and a yogurt container, among the representative items from 2021. After dinner, we assembled on the hill to hear campers and counselors share their thoughts and memories about the different activities at camp, “toasting” their favorites. Another busy full day of camp.

The Spirit Fire Closing Ceremony

As the evening arrived, the whole camp gathered for our traditional closing campfire ceremony, our “Spirit Fire.” It is now 100 years ago that the very first Spirit Fire was held on the big rock overlooking the Rockbrook lake. Like that first gathering, we lit a fire on that same spot to celebrate and reflect upon our time together at camp. We sang traditional songs, and listened to campers and counselors speak about what camp has meant to them. Many girls who were new to Rockbrook this year told how they were nervous arriving, but soon realized that camp was a place where they could be themselves, “imperfections and all,” and still be accepted, included, and loved. Staff members too spoke about being surprised how friendly Rockbrook is to even someone who has never been here before. Several speakers were overcome with emotion where they had trouble continuing. And soon, there were sniffles, and soft whimpers coming from the crowd.

This was a fitting way to end what was overall an emotional session. Camp this session was so deeply felt by everyone here, staff and campers alike. It was as if the pandemic had bottled up our need for human connection, and now at camp, as we re-experienced the joys of romping with friends in the real world, we could finally feel again. We could smile, hug and be hugged, relax and reconnect. The relief we all felt was so intense, many of us couldn’t help but get a little weepy with happiness. The Spirit Fire focused those feelings, but with a touch of sadness, since we knew that our time together this summer was coming to a close.

So thank you for being a part of this special place and special experience for girls. Thank you for recognizing the value of camp for your daughters, and thank you for trusting Rockbrook to provide the kind of summer haven they need. We look forward to seeing everyone again very soon.

This year is the 100-year anniversary of the founding of Rockbrook Camp, and so throughout the summer we are celebrating this milestone with special events, all culminating in a reunion for our alumnae in August. It’s been fun to think back over all those decades of girls coming to this haven in the wilderness and joining the very special community of camp. With this long history, there are now 4th generation campers coming from families whose mother, grandmother, and great grandmother also attended.

This afternoon the whole camp celebrated our centennial with games, activities, and special events. Dressed in their best Rockbrook gear, with as much red and white (our camp colors) as possible, the girls traveled together as cabin groups to different stations throughout the camp.

The 100 Club Challenge

The first was called the “100 club.” It challenged the girls to complete several tasks 100 times: 100 bounces of a tennis ball on a racquet, 100 egg tosses between cabin members, 100 steps balancing a board on your head, 100 rotations of a hula hoop, and creating 100 braids collectively in the group. It turns out doing anything 100 times in a row without stopping can be tough. Let’s just say, we did break a few eggs in the process today, but with a couple of tries, every cabin hit the 100 mark on each challenge.

The second station was more creative. It asked each group to decorate a plaque to commemorate Rockbrook’s 100th year. Girls also wrote “thank you” letters to camp. Using paint, pens and markers, the campers wrote about their favorite things about Rockbrook. We will collect these and publish many of them in our annual “Carrier Pigeon” yearbook.

The third station had the girls making candles by hand, dipping lengths of wick into melted wax. While they took turns dipping, counselors offers small face painting designs… cardinals were a popular design. Also in that station, other groups made “bag ice cream.”

Meanwhile, down at the lake, the fourth station divided the groups for an exciting relay race using our floating “corcles.” These little round boats are big enough for one person. The girls used kick boards to paddle them across the lake and back, racing as fast as they could. Also at the lake, we tossed in 100 yellow rubber ducks and challenged the girls (a few from each cabin) to find a specific duck with the number “100” written on the bottom…. not a needle in a haystack, but close!

The last station rotated the groups down to the Carrier house where Sarah gave everyone a quick lesson on the history of Rockbrook. She showed them several artifacts that belonged to our founder Nancy Carrier (who grew up in that house), old scrap books, the original green uniforms girls wore while at camp, and several framed vintage photos. Sarah and other camp alumnae have just written a book about the history of Rockbrook, so she is currently our resident expert! There was also watermelon and yard games to play on the front lawn of the house.

For dinner Rick and his crew chose a traditional menu: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The baker made delicious centennial cupcakes with a buttercream frosting for dessert. Those went fast!

Birthday Fireworks

The highlight of the day was the cool fireworks show we enjoyed after dark. Ordinarily we shoot fireworks once a summer on the 4th of July, but we thought we should celebrate Rockbrook’s birthday with just as much enthusiasm. We had fun pop music playing, and as the girls danced and sang along to the music, they cheered as each colorful explosion lit up the sky above the lake. It’d been a while since most of us had seen a fireworks show making it even more enjoyable. Happy Birthday Rockbrook!

There is a direct circus connection to Rockbrook. Nancy Barnum Clarke Carrier, the founder of the camp, is the great-granddaughter of P.T. Barnum, the famed “Great American Showman.” She grew up on the camp property in the house her father built in 1898, and later, after being married in 1913, founded Rockbrook in 1921. Being part of the Barnum family, Nancy inherited many circus artifacts, decorating her home with things like an elephant’s foot stool, a full-size stuffed monkey, and Tom Thumbs chair. The circus has always been a part of Rockbrook.

Dressing Like Circus Characters

Today we decided to recognize that circus connection by first of all dressing like circus characters. All day at camp, there were lots of clowns, crazy hats, glasses and wigs. One especially tall clown showed up at dinner for a juggling performance! A few campers and staff members dressed like circus animals: at least one lion and several zebras. There were even two life-sized cones of cotton candy: one blue and the other pink!

Carnival on the Sports Field

After dinner, the main event was a circus-themed carnival on our grassy sports field. What better way to begin celebrating Rockbrook’s 100th year than to have inflatables, cotton candy, circus games, music and dancing?

One of the inflatables was a water slide, so many of the girls came dressed in their swimsuits. They dashed from game to game, pausing to grab some water or wait for a cone from the cotton candy machine. The games included a pingpong ball toss, a giant inflated ring toss, and a water pistol shooting game. There were three inflatables: the waterslide, an obstacle course, and a bouncy maze.

Other activities included a hula hooping club, a face painting station, and a caricature drawing booth staffed by two counselors. It took only a few minutes for them to make a drawing, and soon there was quite a lineup of girls wanting their caricature drawn.

Throughout the event we played circus-themed music and gradually added popular songs into the mix, turning the event into a fun outdoor dance party as well. The whole event was lighthearted, silly, and fun. The weather was beautiful adding even more. It had the kind of energy, and the smiling faces, you can only find at camp. Once again, let me direct you to the online photo gallery where you can see much more.

The rest of the evening saw every shower in camp running at the same time as everyone wound down after the exciting day. Your girls are doing great at Rockbrook. They’ve settled into the rhythms of camp life, bonded with their “crew,” and found each day rich and full.