June 2013

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June 18, 2013May 25, 2020 • News • Jeff Carter

A Source of True Fascination

This lovely photo was taken as Karen, our head photographer, followed a group of Junior campers down to the lake for their “Nature” activity period. Each armed with fine mesh nets, Hannah their counselor/instructor, soon had the girls skimming the lake water to “see what they could find.” Finding living things in nature is, in fact, something we do a lot around here. It might be a black snake climbing a low branch, a spider crawling innocently along the top of the shower door, or a shiny snail leaving its glistening trail up a rhododendron leaf. Each is, or at least can be with a little encouragement and sincere enthusiasm, a source of true fascination. Instead of squealing at bugs, have you noticed the fine segments of their legs? Instead of avoiding tadpoles in the lake, how cool is it to see them swim? These are little natural miracles ripe with fresh detail and ready to capture the curiosity of a child. That’s what’s going on here at camp. In this brief time, these girls can pour themselves into the experience of nature, in this case, of catching a tadpole, giggling as it wiggles in a little cup, and clapping a little cheer as it swims safely back into the lake afterwards. With so many moments like this at camp, we hope they sink in a bit and your girls are just as curious and engaged throughout the coming year.

A rather different experience awaits the girls who elect to take riflery while at camp. Instead of marveling at the wonderful details of the natural world, riflery follows a more measured path. Shooting accurately and precisely requires consistency, a steady, practiced set of actions. The girls learn quickly that riflery rewards a gentle, yet confident hand, and it shows in their improvement. Bullets in the black… I’m sure you’ll see a souvenir target to prove it!

Tonight the CA (9th grade) campers revealed their secret banquet theme and opened a “Big Top Circus” for everyone by transforming the dining hall with wall decorations, streamers, and brightly colored tablecloths. The girls each dressed in a a different circus costume too with mimes, a contortionist, dancers, a fortuneteller, lion tamer, and ringmaster all playing a role. For the menu, the girls chose to serve hot dogs, soft pretzels, popcorn, corn on the cob, cotton candy, and soda.

As everyone enjoyed different courses from the menu and listened to classic circus music (like “Entrance of the Gladiators”), the girls performed skits showcasing their talents… Juggling and even riding a unicycle. They presented choreographed group dances, amazed everyone with several mimes, a life-sized puppet show, and even made a “Photo Booth” for the campers complete with silly props. Overall it was a fun, interactive party. We all danced and sang, laughed and posed for photos, all charged up on plenty of sweet candy treats. Thank you CAs for an awesome night!

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June 17, 2013May 27, 2020 • North Carolina • Jeff Carter

North Carolina Beauty

This part of North Carolina is home to the highest peaks east of the Mississippi River. These are the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Southern Appalachian range and include the Great Smoky mountains. While Rockbrook is located along the eastern slope bordering the French Broad River Valley at an elevation of 2,600 feet, the highest peak in North Carolina is Mount Mitchell which stands at 6,686 feet. New Hampshire and Maine also claim tall peaks— Mount Washington (6,288 ft) and Mount Katahdin (6,268 ft) — but NC claims the number one spot. Among the highest peaks in North Carolina are two that are a short drive from Rockbrook: Black Balsam Knob (6,201 ft) and Tennent Mountain (6,056 ft). And for a group of Rockbrook girls, these peaks were a hiking destination today. At this elevation, the experience is one of looking out, and down at the hills and valleys below. At the same time, the sky feels very close because clouds are all around, above, below and right beside you. It’s a strangely stark, other worldly, almost numinous experience. Being in this part of North Carolina is literally so awe-some, the girls were (almost) left speechless! You can see that today the weather was rather unsettled with bands of clouds and even rain in the valleys blowing by, making the whole hike even more dynamic and dramatic. Very cool!

Meanwhile back at camp, where it was surprisingly wetter with a slight drizzle falling, all of the regular craft activities were bustling. All those colorful projects! Tying and dying. Twisting and pulling. Painting and marking. Gluing and sewing. Weaving and hooking. Here is a photo of the girls making Jewelry on the Hillside Lodge porch. This is a wonderful setting with red rocking chairs and a big broad table to spread out on. The girls have now progressed to even more complex friendship bracelet patterns— double chevron, arrowhead, heart, basket weave, and diamond, for example. With so many friends at camp, and family members at home who will enjoy a camp-made gift, there’s always a good reason to make another friendship bracelet. Take a look at the image on the our camp videos page to see how they can stack up!

The last few days at camp seem to have exploded with color for both the camp flower beds and the forest itself are blooming beautifully. It doesn’t hurt that we’ve been having regular light showers and periods of sun for the last couple of days. In the forest, there are exquisite clusters of tall and broad ferns, tall pink Ladyslippers, and Painted Trilliums surprising us along the trails in camp with spots of color and pattern. The flower beds at camp— along the dining hall, in front of the Junior Lodge, the canoe planter by the lake—and all the planters around camp are even more full. This photo is just a sample of the amazing work Pam our gardener has done, and continues to do, to keep Rockbrook’s setting so lovely and blooming. I hope you have time to wander around when you arrive to pick up your daughter in a few days.

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June 16, 2013May 25, 2020 • News • Grace Wallace

A Team Effort

This Sunday, the girls of Rockbrook gathered in a peaceful little corner of camp for chapel, a non-religious service that gives our campers and counselors quiet time to reflect on the week, and discuss some of the most important values that we promote here at camp. This week the theme of chapel was “Creativity,” so girls of the Junior and Middler lines stood before their peers to express the importance of creativity in camp life.

There was talk of our crafts classes, of course—of the toothbrush-holders made in pottery, the baskets woven in Curosty, the bracelets beaded in jewelry making. There was mention of the play, of the dedication that it takes to create something special for everyone to enjoy. And several girls brought up the nightly creative endeavor, Evening Program, in which every cabin works together to put on a skit.

It was this last sort of creativity, in which the girls work together to create something new, that came to the forefront later that day in the Miss RBC pageant, after the crisp white uniforms of the morning had been replaced with the colorful—if slightly dirty—play clothes of the afternoon.

Far removed from the beauty pageants you might see on TV, the Miss RBC pageant calls for one member of each cabin to dress up in the craziest, most over-the-top costume they can come up with and answer a silly question, such as “What’s your favorite jelly bean flavor, and why?” While it’s always fun to see the costumes that the pageant contestants and their cabin-mates put together (my particular favorite was the senior with toilet paper wrapped over her clothes, and her ponytail threaded through a plastic cup), the real highlight of the show is the talent portion.

All week, each cabin worked together to plan a skit, dance, song, or puppet show to impress the judges. The ideas that they came up with were truly impressive. From juniors adapting a Rockbrook song into a moving (and hilarious) saga about a mermaid and a shark, to Middlers singing their own arrangement of songs a capella, to seniors choreographing elaborate dance routines, the show had it all, and proved to be immensely entertaining for everyone involved.

More exciting still were the looks of pride and accomplishment worn by the campers of each and every cabin as they trooped off stage after performing for the camp. Especially those campers who had been nervous to step onstage beforehand looked thrilled to have accomplished the feat, and to have done it all with their friends and cabin-mates standing right beside them.

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June 15, 2013May 17, 2020 • News • Jeff Carter

Colorful Treasures

The glazes are out! In both pottery studios at camp, the girls have now finished many of their pieces— the bowls, soap dishes, textured tiles, cups, mugs, and plenty of sculpted animals —and are excited to give them a little color. There are 25 or so different colors to select and then paint onto their clay creations before Katie and her pottery staff carefully stack them into the kilns for firing. That’s where everything is transformed into beautifully shiny (now colorful) works of art. Glazes blend together, maybe drip and run a little, and change color quite dramatically, so it’s never 100% predictable what a glazed piece of pottery will look like when it emerges from the kiln. It’s so exciting to find out! Later in the week, after everything is fired, we hold a big “Pottery Pick Up” day for the girls to come claim their work. All the finished pieces are laid out on tables so everyone can relish the creativity and see the huge variety of items the campers have produced over the session. Don’t be surprised if you have a box of pottery treasures to transport home next week.

The weather this morning was so wonderful, Emily decided to announce a canoe trip on the French Broad River. Warm sunshine is always an inspiration for a paddling trip and today that was true too because it took very little time to fill the trip with 12 excited Juniors. Also, the girls were enthusiastic to get out on the river after learning their canoe strokes on the lake. They paddled a section of the river right near camp, a short section that kept them on the water for about an hour and a half… just about the right amount of time. Canoeing is one of the adventure activities that Rockbrook has offered since its founding. It’s one of the classic outdoor pursuits that, with this kind of introduction, can become a lifelong treasured hobby.

After last week’s Saturday night dance, we changed it up tonight and held a square dance with the boys at Camp High Rocks, which is located just up the mountain from Rockbrook. You might think that going to a square dance would require less primp and prep, but there’s still hair to braid, plaid to find, and for some, boots to brush. We held 2 dances simultaneously, one at our gym for the older girls and the other outside on the High Rocks tennis courts. The idea of square dancing with boys can cause a little anxiety… not really knowing how to do it… having to hold hands! …but everything is lighthearted, and after all, part of the fun is making mistakes and laughing when you spin the wrong direction or grab the wrong hand. The counselors are dancing too, so this also helps the campers relax and enjoy themselves. In the end, despite being a little new to everyone, and maybe a little challenging as a result, we had a wonderful evening.

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June 14, 2013May 25, 2020 • News • Jeff Carter

Messy and Good

Another outdoor activity we offer our girls here at Rockbrook is called “WHOA,” which stands for “Wilderness Hiking Outdoor Adventure.” It provides a broad introduction to outdoor skills like fire building, orienteering, map reading, knot tying, and plenty of hiking around the camp property. Each day the girls do something different. They might hike up the steep trail to the top of Castle Rock for a view across the French Broad River Valley to the Blue Ridge Mountains. They could make the trek out to Rockbrook Falls or up behind the camp to see Stick Biscuit Falls. Today the girls in WHOA learned the principles of fire building (the importance of heat, fuel and oxygen), how to collect dry wood, and different ways to stack twigs so they will ignite from a match. With the fire going, they couldn’t just let it burn without also roasting marshmallows. And with marshmallows roasting, they just had to make s’mores too. Fire building and outdoor cooking, especially when it ends with a yummy treat, makes for a popular activity.

The whitewater kayakers at camp this session were busy again today, this time with a day-long trip to the lower Green River. With our fleet of colorful new kayaks lashed to a trailer, 8 girls and 2 counselors drove to the river and met Leland and Mary Ann, our lead kayaking instructors. The trip started with a brief refresher about basic safety and paddling techniques, but quickly turned to a discussion of how to read moving water, ferry across the river, and find calm eddies to rest. This section of the Green River is a perfect stretch of water for a beginner. It has class I and II rapids nicely spaced along about 6 miles. Today the weather was crisp with deep blue skies and all the warm sunshine we could soak up, an absolutely perfect day to be out paddling.

Shaving Cream Fight! That was the announcement during dinner inviting everyone down to the sports field for a slippery, and very messy, romp with cans of shaving cream. This was an optional event, but for many girls they had been waiting for the chance to frolic with all this white foam. Dressed in their bathing suits it took about 1 minute for everyone to be splattered and in some cases completely covered.

You can tell from these photos that this event is ridiculously fun. It’s mischievous, yet perfectly OK at camp. It’s a kind of harmless messiness that feels great, and in this case, makes for a wild ride down the slip ‘n slide.

We often say that camp is a special place where kids can do things that aren’t easily recreated elsewhere, either at home or at school. This is a clear example of that, but more importantly than being allowed to get a little grubby, a shaving cream “fight” like this brings the girls closer together. With shaving cream on everyone (yes, even on me), I think we dissolve the boundaries between us and strengthen our community. Of course the girls will say they are “just having fun,” but there’s something liberating and likewise unifying about the whole event. In so many ways, it feels really good.

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June 13, 2013May 27, 2020 • News • Jeff Carter

Painted Fun

Girl climbing high ropes course at summer camp

Out in the woods behind our gym, a 50ft tall, high ropes climbing tower, our “Alpine Tower,” sees daily action. Campers can sign up to climb it (or the climbing wall in the gym if it’s rainy) as one of their 4 activity periods. It provides the perfect introduction to rock climbing because it introduces girls to the same equipment (helmets, harnesses, locking carabiners, and kernmantle ropes) and techniques like belay commands, knots, footwork and balancing principles. The tower is triangular with three sides each with different obstacles and climbing challenges, so three girls can climb on it simultaneously. Also, each side presents dozens of different routes to the top making it easy to find a find challenge each time you climb. The are swinging logs, cargo nets, overhanging walls, dangling ropes, parallel posts, and of course all different sized handholds, all requiring a different move to reach the top platform. Once they make it up, the girls enjoy a tree-top view before being gently lowered down on their belay rope.

Transylvania County, where we are located, dubs itself the “Land of Waterfalls” because there are hundreds nearby created by the many creeks and streams tumbling off the mountains over enormous rocks. Over the centuries, many of these waterfalls have created beautiful pools of water below that provide a fantastic experience for a brave swimmer. It takes a little courage to swim at the bottom of a waterfall. The churning foam looks intriguing, reminiscent of a hot tub, but the crashing sound and slapping force of the falling water conveys a special power that must be approached carefully. The water pushes you around. Also, it’s no secret that the water around here is brisk… or let’s call it “refreshingly nippy,” and nothing like a hot tub. The exhilaration of the water temperature and the intensity of it pounding all around you, is a huge thrill. The Hi-Ups (our 10th grade campers) experienced this today when they spent the afternoon at one of our favorite swimming holes. Did they scream? Oh, yes. Was it awesome fun? Definitely.

Our evening program tonight was a special all-camp event that was surely a unique experience for the girls. It began with a “color run.” For those interested (it was fine to opt out), they put on an old t-shirt and ran through a gauntlet of counselors armed with brightly colored, powdered paint (non-toxic of course). After a little spray of water at the start, the paint stuck to the girls giving them an colorful, tie-dyed look. This led them down to the gym of a color paint dance party put on by our favorite local DJ Marcus. We passed around glow sticks and used even more colorful glow paint and face paint to magnify the colorful dance lighting Marcus included in his show. This was all so much fun! The girls laughed and played for 2 solid hours, pausing for photos, showing off silly dance moves, and signing along to their favorite pop songs. With no boys around and everyone, counselors and campers, so fully engaged, they felt even more at ease and willing to be painted. Be sure to check out the photo gallery of this event to see how much we all enjoyed it.

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June 12, 2013May 25, 2020 • News • Jeff Carter

Punctuating our Days

Meals at camp punctuate our day at Rockbrook, as they do elsewhere, but here they are regular times for not only delicious food, but also songs, conversation, skits, surprise announcements, and even dance breaks. As I write these updates, I should probably mention what we’re eating more often because it’s so great. Rick and his team in the kitchen consistently serve balanced, artfully prepared meals that are made from scratch. His entrees, side dishes, sauces and dressings are all made in house, not reheated, frozen, processed institutional “products.” Rick just loves to cook, actually cook, and add his own creative ideas to the process. So here goes… today at breakfast Rick had a giant mountain of fried potatoes that he delicately spiced with a mix of garlic, white pepper, salt and fresh dill. Those potatoes joined heaps of scrambled eggs and sausages, along with our regular breakfast bar of fruits, yogurt, granola and other cereals. Then for lunch (in between, of course, there was muffin break… Blueberry with cookie crumble topping, this time), Rick made us fried green tomatoes with a mild rémoulade sauce. This involved slicing dozens of tomatoes, soaking them in a saltwater bath, dipping them in a cornmeal/flour breading made with just the right amount of salt and pepper, and frying each slice until golden brown. Outstanding! Dinner was a little more mainstream with his homemade marinara sauce (onions, garlic and carrots first sautéd, with added crushed tomatoes and spices) and pasta with steamed broccoli. Someone could write a daily food blog about all the wonderful things prepared for us at Rockbrook. Thanks Rick!

Down at the Equestrian center, Liz, our Director of Riding, and her instructors have been working with the girls in mounted lessons throughout the day. The recent improvement in the weather has allowed our regular riding to charge ahead as well as a few make up lessons to be arranged for girls who missed their riding when it was raining. In addition to the beginners feeling more confident about walking their horses, the ground poles are out, and for some riders, the jumps and other gymnastics have been set up. The girls are returning for each lesson with added enthusiasm for riding, often a desire to ride a new four-legged equine friend, and generally “champing at the bit” 😉 to try the next skill, like learning to trot or the first techniques for jumping. It’s thrilling to see these girls enjoy riding this much.

Blocks of free time also punctuate our days at camp. Tucked in between our four organized activity periods and our three meals and snack breaks, we have three periods each day when the girls can decide what they would like to do around the camp. This might mean heading down to the lake for a ride down the water slide, a quick game of tetherball, lounging in crazy creek chairs, playing a game of tennis, grabbing a quick shower, having a flip-flop race in the creek, reading, writing a letter, or enjoying the view from a red porch rocker. Not everyone or every camp might see it this way, but we believe camp should be a haven from the hectic pace of ordinarily life because kids benefit from the freedom to meander. Our girls feel empowered when they are given a chance to pursue their interests here at Rockbrook. It really is one of the joys of summer… To have time to enjoy all these great things to do with so many great people.

Let’s take all the Middlers and their counselors, 93 people altogether, to Sliding Rock! That’s exactly what we did tonight, and it was a blast! We started out with a picnic supper in the forest, and then played a few field games to digest a little, but made our way to the rock around 7pm. Sliding Rock is officially closed that late, but going on our own (with our own lifeguards) is great because we can have the place to ourselves and the girls can easily slide multiple times. Tonight the water was higher than normal, and was so powerful, it was difficult to stand in it at the top of the rock. Several strong counselors anchored themselves to help the girls step out and begin their unusually fast ride down to the pool at the bottom. Our last stop of the evening was Dolly’s Dairy Bar. Combining mountain stream, toe-numbing water and ice cream might seem a little crazy (and doing it at night, even more so!), but when it’s this sweet, these girls didn’t hesitate to pick out a flavor. We all returned to camp a little cold and a little tired, but also full of that satisfied feeling of having had a great day at camp.

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June 11, 2013August 5, 2023 • Summer Camp • Jeff Carter

A Sense of Wonder

It’s easy to see how there’s excitement around every corner here at Rockbrook. During the activity periods the girls are happily busy, fully engaged in crafts, sports, and adventure. They’re folding and tying white t-shirts preparing them for colorful dyes, and guiding rackets to tune their tennis serves. They are exercising their bodies and their imaginations riding horses and performing short improvisational skits. Each scheduled activity offers ways to play, to learn and to have fun with friends.

In addition though, there’s an added ingredient at Rockbrook that makes this more than just entertainment or a fleeting diversion, and it has to do with the sense of wonder that blossoms so easily and often throughout our day. These are moments when we are suddenly confronted by delicate natural beauty, like a spider web freshly weighted by drops of dew, or the zing of putting your feet in a chilly stream, or the sharp call at dusk of a Pileated woodpecker, for example. Simply being outside in this beautiful place is wonder-ful. It inspires Rockbrook girls to open themselves to new and fascinating experiences. And when combined with the caring encouragement of their friends and counselors, camp fosters courage and fascination rather than hesitation when encountering the unfamiliar. It teaches girls that the world is an amazing place ready to be explored, that curiosity will enrich their lives with delightful people, places and things. We hope that our time together in “the heart of a wooded mountain” at Rockbrook can be a lasting resource for our girls, a deep lesson about the joys of discovering the wonder of the world.

girls cooling their feet while doing yoga

Here are a couple of photos taken of our Yoga classes taught by Mary Alice. They ordinarily meet in the stone “Hillside Lodge,” but can be held anywhere in camp where those purple mats can go… like here, for example, when the group decided cooling their feet by the creek would be relaxing. With a little quiet instrumental music in the background, Mary Alice guides the campers through a series of Hatha Yoga postures and controlled breathing. For many of the girls, these classes provide welcome moments of mindfulness and focused attention far removed from the ordinarily high-speed pace of camp life. In this way, they too can foster a sense of wonder for the girls.

Throughout the day we took about a third of the camp, almost all of the Middlers and Seniors who had not yet gone this session, whitewater rafting on the Nantahala River over in Swain County. This is quite a logistical challenge when it includes 76 campers, 6 staff members, 7 whitewater guides, 6 bus drivers, 1 Rockbrook director, lunch for 100 people, and all the whitewater equipment for the trip itself. But we have plenty of experience making it happen, and all in-house without hiring a third-party company to handle it. The trip itself is a combination of electrifying rapids, like the “Quarry Rapid” that has several large waves in a row, and calm sections where there’s time to chat with everyone in the raft, maybe start a splash war between boats or the girls can test their nerve with a quick leap into the (very!) cold water. It was a gloriously hot day, perfect for rafting, and the girls had a ball laughing and screaming all the way down the river.

This last photo is another great example of how Rockbrook is helping to foster a sense of wonder for your girls. For generations, girls have been struck by the natural splendor of Rockbrook, even describing it in one of our traditional songs as a “Fairyland of Beauty.” Spending time here in this ancient forest, among powerful trees and other bristling plants and critters, it feels magical, almost like everything is the work of tiny, winged fairies. Tonight after dinner, Pam our talented gardener, hosted a “Wings and Bling” garden party for any girls interested in making a fairy house, or a potted arrangement of flowers. Using bark, moss, flowers, polished stones, bits of cloth, Mardi Gras beads (from tonight’s fun “birthday night” dinner), and anything else the girls felt inspired to include, the group made a entire Fairy village. Such imagination and creativity! Later, two campers, with complete sincerity, suggested that the Fairies would enjoy a bedtime cookie and we should leave a bit for them in their village. All, so so wonderful.

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June 10, 2013May 1, 2020 • News • Grace Wallace

My Dewcoat Is Up In My Cabin

Our first full day with the mini-session campers turned out to be a wet one–the rain showers that rolled in Sunday night lingered over our wooded mountain for most of yesterday morning.

In true Rockbrook fashion, though, we weren’t held back by the rain, or “dew” as we like to call it here at camp. Since Rockbrook girls like to greet every scenario with a song, we started off the morning with a rousing rendition of “My Dewcoat Is Up In My Cabin,” at breakfast, in which the campers sing for someone to please “Bring DOWN, bring DOWN, oh bring down my dewcoat to me, to me!” Activities started up as usual soon after, just with a few improvisations thrown in to make this rainy day as fun as any other.

Tennis classes switched out rackets for paddles, and put together makeshift pingpong tables in the dining hall. Pairs of girls faced off over napkin-holder-nets in an epic pingpong tournament that had the whole dining hall cheering.

Not to be outdone, Archery, Swimming, and Riflery joined up with Sports and Games in the gym, for a pick-up game of balloon-volleyball. To make things more interesting, the counselors in charge hung a tarp over the net, so the campers couldn’t see until the last moment where the balloons would emerge. Just when the girls were getting the hang of things, the counselors threw in another curveball by adding even more balloons, resulting in an action-packed hour of shouting girls, flying balloons, and big smiles.

Our craft activities continued as scheduled, sometimes with additional campers joining in from their outdoor activities. Girls who had thought they’d be spending their mornings hiking to a nearby waterfall, instead tried their hands at improv games in Drama, weaving in Curosty, and pillow-making in Hodge Podge. I even heard one girl, after trying out Drama for the first time due to the rain, promise the Drama teacher that she would be sure to sign up for Drama for the next activity rotation.

After a morning of crafts, group games, and ice breakers indoors, campers and counselors emerged from their cabins after rest hour to a pristine–if slightly damp–camp, sparkling in the sunlight. The rest of the day went perfectly as scheduled: kayaks ventured out onto the lake once more, arrows thudded into bullseyes at the archery range, Curosty classes took their basket-weaving out to the creekside to enjoy the scenery–all while campers of all ages zoomed overhead on the zip-line.

It is true that these exciting adventures (big and small), which campers encounter every day at camp, are what make Rockbrook an exciting place to be; but still, it is the way that our campers spent their rainy morning that makes Rockbrook special.

Elsewhere, you might pass a stormy morning sitting around the house, staring glumly out the window, waiting for the sun to release you from boredom. Here at camp, we treat that pesky rain to a song, then spend its duration trying new things, meeting new friends, and creating silly games that might never even have been thought of if the rain hadn’t offered us the time.

We can handle the rain— it’s boredom that has no place here at Rockbrook.

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June 9, 2013May 25, 2020 • News • Jeff Carter

All Together

The excitement around here exploded today as we welcomed our June Mini Session campers to Rockbrook. Ninety Four girls, about half of who are new to camp, joined the full session girls who arrived last week bringing the camp to completely full. After a few stops to see the medical team (pediatrician, nurses, and “head check” specialists) and office folks, and after taking some time to peruse the latest RBC gear, the new girls and their counselors could begin moving into their cabins. “Top bunk or bottom bunk?” and “Where should I keep my trunk?” are the most immediate questions to answer, but it doesn’t take long to make beds, arrange a stuffed animal or two, or maybe hang a small photo or poster to make these old (many almost 100 year-old) cabins feel cozy. Meeting your new cabin mates is another fun part of this process. It feels so good to have everyone here at last. Now the dining hall will be extra loud when everyone is singing, the activity classes will include more friends to talk with, the free swim periods (one before lunch and another before dinner) at the lake will be more of an event.

A little after noon, everyone gathered on the grassy hill at the center of camp, and under the shade of the big walnut tree heard Sarah, the other directors and the Line Heads (counselors in charge of each age group) introduce themselves and announce the plans for the rest of the day. The Hi-Up campers (10th graders) led everyone in several songs, and then we gathered into groups to take State photographs. It was fun to see that Florida and Georgia were the two largest groups, the there were girls and counselors representing many other states, like Massachusetts, Colorado and even California. Lunch was fantastic. Rick had for us, his homemade barbeque chicken (or tempeh), a cheese grits casserole, and fresh steamed broccoli, as well as our deluxe salad bars which he stocked with other vegetables, fruits and sandwhich spreads. This was true comfort food, perfect for our first full meal together. And, it was devoured!

A brief note about technology at camp… As you know, we strive to teach our campers the value of slowing down a little, reconnecting to the natural world and to the people around us. We believe that “unplugging,” taking a break from the flicker of television, phone, and computer screens, really helps girls get more out of camp. This can be a little difficult at first, especially it seems for the teenagers (I once saw a camper actually kiss her iPhone as she said “goodbye” to it on opening day.) but it only takes a day or two of camp life, of experiencing the satisfying feeling of it, to realize that fully engaging the world is so much better than the virtual abstractions technology offers. That’s a great lesson.

We were fortunate to be able to hold our swimming demonstrations for the new campers after lunch and before the weather turned on us. There were only a couple of cabins who couldn’t squeeze in their demos before the rain, and we’ll take care of theirs tomorrow. We also were able to have our afternoon scavenger hunt that sent the girls all over the camp to visit a dozen or so activity areas and to meet the instructors. There were skits and games to perform at each station, and at some, snacks like fruit and goldfish kept everyone energized. This was all in preparation for the girls signing up for their first set of scheduled activities later in the evening, and for tomorrow’s action.

Keep those cards, letters and emails coming! We love mail at camp!

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