We had such a great response from the last video we posted, we’re excited to share with you another one taken during First Session. Robbie from Go Swan Filmworks again spent the day with us this past Saturday filming short moments of life at Rockbrook. He’s edited all that footage into this little video. We love it, and hope you will too!
The intense summer heat the southeast has been experiencing has crept up this wooded mountain too. While not quite record setting, we’ve been only a couple of degrees shy of that, and everyone’s been remarking lately about the heat and humidity. Fortunately, Rockbrook is at an elevation of 2,250 feet above sea level, and that helps temperatures drop at night. So while we have broken into the 90s a bit in the afternoon, we are enjoying 60s in the cabins while sleeping. Add to that the many opportunities to cool off in our mountain-stream fed lake (the “Free Swim” periods before lunch and dinner, for example), and all this summer heat feels just fine.
It’s hard to say exactly, but a very high percentage of the girls here, both campers and staff members, have water bottles that they carry around throughout the day… even more so, now, with this extra warm weather. Well, It might be surprising, but with more water bottles around, we also see more friendship bracelets because they are often tied to the bottle’s handles. These are not simply campy decorations, though I suppose they are that too. No, these are unfinished friendship bracelets, now being carried around, always at-the-ready for a little more knot tying. The water bottle handles make perfect fixed points for tying the strands, yet also a great way to bring that fixed point with you on the go. Most girls will have more than one partially completed friendship bracelet dangling from their bottle, having several open projects because they have multiple friends in mind to receive them. There are a lot of friends. Camp is just that way.
The mastery being revealed these days at the Ga-ga pit is marvelous. With many hours of practice sharpening their skills, there are girls playing who are so agile, they are consistently in the game the longest. They leap from one foot to the other avoiding the ball, easily anticipating what each bounce will bring. It’s amazing to watch these girls play such a fast-paced game, and it’s equally exciting for them to play too.
Since the very first day of camp this session, the CA campers (our 9th graders) have been planning a surprise party for the entire camp. After secretly choosing a theme for their party (their “Banquet”), these girls have since worked everyday to design decorations, music, costumes, skits, dances, and special food —all revolving around their theme. Their theme? Superheroes! The girls dressed as their favorite hero, 16 different ones. In addition to Spiderman, Batman and Ironman, we had Wonder Woman, Cat Woman, and Batgirl to even things out. They performed a skit that assembled thes powerful women, and another that featured the Avengers (Hulk, Hawkeye, Thor, and Captain America). The meal included “Superman Skewers” (fresh strawberries. blueberries, bananas and pineapple), “Power Sticks” (celery and carrot sticks), “Pop! Chicken” with Steak Fries, and “City’s Rubble” (Oreo puddling with gummy worms) for dessert.
Dressed in their new blue RBC t-shirts, everyone at camp danced and sang together between the skits and choreographed dances, as plenty of candy (and pop songs) fueled the whole event. So much stimulation— happy excited friends, food, music and dancing —it’s easy to see why the Rockbrook Banquets, including this one, are a highlight of every camp session. They are awesome!
Saturday is a day when we sometimes arrange a special workshop offered by a guest artist or performer, making it an optional activity the girls can select to mix up their schedules. Today we had the treat of George Peterson and his wife Margaret (who is an Alumna of Rockbrook) presenting a wood turning class. George is an artist who lives here in Brevard, and is well known for his work using wood. He makes both functional and sculptural pieces by carving, etching, sawing and marking the wood using different tools and methods (e.g., burning or branding). He has sculptures displayed in galleries all over the United States and abroad. Later this month, for example, he is traveling to Japan to present two shows of his work. Check out his studio or some of his exhibited pieces, and you’ll be very impressed.
George began his session with a demonstration of a wood lathe, taking an eight-inch cube of wood, turning and carving it into a shallow bowl. The 12 campers watching were wide-eyed as the twisty chips of wood flew out from the chisel he used to shape the bowl. After the lathe, he showed the girls how to form the outside and bottom of the bowl using an electric carving tool. The girls then took turns carving their own bowls with the tool (George had cut the interior of these pieces in advance), and using sandpaper to make a smooth finish. George also has a cool metal brand of the letters “RBC” that he heated and burned the letters into each piece. The final step involved painting their bowl with mineral oil, which, as you can see, really warmed up the grain of the wood. The finished bowls all look fantastic.
There are 3 different creeks that run through Rockbrook, each providing easy access for the girls to explore the insects and other creatures that live among the rocks, mosses, and cool waters flowing down the hill. Armed with nets and loaded with curiosity, the campers who select the activity we simply call “Nature” are sure to spend an hour getting their feet wet in one of these Rockbrook creeks. There are worms to find, but also tadpoles, salamanders and crawdads (aka, crayfish or mudbugs). The nets you see in this photo make it much easier to catch these larger critters, and putting them temporarily in cups is a nice way to get a good, up-close look at what they catch. With this kind of outdoor exploration going on at camp, there’s certainly no deficit of nature around here!
During lunch rumors began to spread that we would be having a dance with the boys of Camp Carolina tonight, so as you can imagine, our never-ending-hot-water heaters began to get a workout long before dinner. Fortunately, the rumors were true, and all that cleaning up and hair brushing paid off because around 6:30, we loaded up all our buses and vans to transport our Seniors over to CCB for their dance. At the same time, the younger Camp Carolina boys came over to Rockbrook so we could make each group a more reasonable size and tailor the mood of the dance appropriately at two dances simultaneously. Some girls felt more comfortable to attend our “Dance Alternative” friendship bracelet party instead of the dances. These dances can get a little hot and sweaty as the crowd jumps around, sings and laughs to each familiar pop song. The group dances like “Cotton-eyed Joe” kept a lot of people moving, but all the Taylor Swift songs clearly had the most pull. Everyone was enjoying the silliness of the event, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. Thanks for a fun evening CCB!
The American Camp Association is a 100-year-old organization of summer camps and individuals dedicated to helping “preserve, promote, and improve the camp experience” by sharing knowledge, conducting research, and developing continuing educational opportunities for summer camps in America. Part of this mission is an accreditation process that defines for summer camps key points of quality, health and safety, effectively identifying industry standards. If a camp chooses to meet these standards— there are almost 300 of them— it can be “ACA accredited” and thereby be understood as a program with “a solid foundation of health, safety, and program quality” with exceptional “accountability, credibility, and commitment,” as the ACA puts it. Being ACA accredited is not easy. In fact, only about 20% of the summer camps in America have the distinction of having this accreditation.
You are probably not surprised to learn, if you didn’t know already, that Rockbrook is an ACA accredited camp. All aspects of Rockbrook’s operation, facilities, programing, and staff qualifications have been evaluated and shown to meet or exceed the ACA accreditation standards. We have held this distinction since the late 1980s, being one of the first camps in the area to be accredited.
To maintain this accreditation, the ACA requires an on-site visit/inspection every 3 years to demonstrate and document a camp’s compliance to the standards, and today was Rockbrook’s “visit.” I am happy to report that our two “visitors,” after touring everything at camp, the activity areas, cabins, kitchen, Infirmary, and waterfront, and after examining a 5-inch think binder of documents describing Rockbrook’s policies and procedures, were very impressed. This visit, being so thorough, took all day, but in the end, we nicely sailed through everything. It was a great day touring our ACA visitors around camp. Their knowledge and quick praise of what we are doing at Rockbrook made everyone here feel good.
A little more than 8 miles south of Rockbrook along US276, the state line between North and South Carolina forms the eastern continental divide, at an elevation of 2910 feet. On the South Carolina side we have the Atlantic Seaboard watershed, where all the creeks and streams flow down toward the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. The North Carolina side of the continental divide sends its water north, eventually turning west, meeting the Mississippi River and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico almost 2000 miles later.
Most of our waters here in Transylvania County, including the 2 waterfalls on the Rockbrook Property (Stick Biscuit Falls and Rockbrook Falls), flow into the French Broad river as in flows toward Asheville. East of camp is tributary of the French Broad called the “Little River,” which is a complicated creek that winds north through the Dupont State Forest. Gaining volume as it flows, it’s responsible for several of Dupont’s more spectacular waterfalls— High Falls, Triple Falls, and Hooker Falls. After the it drops over Hooker Falls, the river widens to form a narrow lake called “Cascade Lake” stretching about a mile and a half from the falls to the dam on the northern end.
This morning, a group of ten campers, led by Thea and Clyde, took a canoe trip along Cascade Lake, paddling all the way up to Hooker falls and back. They had perfect weather making their way along the beautiful waters of the lake. There was time for a brief swim to cool off at the base of the falls, as well. Clyde even packed everyone a muffin from camp, successfully recharging everyone before the paddle back to the put in. To think this water makes it all the way to New Orleans, it’s really a special experience to paddle this clear mountain lake.
Meanwhile back at camp, “Big Samantha,” the affectionate nickname of our water slide, was hurtling campers out into the lake during free swim. The ride is 150-feet long and begins at the top of a 50-foot tower accessed by walking along the boardwalk on the far side of the lake. The slide is made of vinyl tarp material draped between two parallel cables. With a little water spraying it from above, the slope down to the lake is slick, and the splash at the bottom is powerful. It’s a guaranteed thrill! It’s a quick swim over to the ladders, and an easy— now wet, drippy— walk back around the boardwalk, and up the tower steps for another slide. Some girls just need more than one ride down Big Samantha each day. It’s simply that fun!
Tying on a blindfold before climbing is not something you see very often. Over at our Alpine Tower, however, there are girls who do exactly that; before they climb someone ties a bandana tightly around their eyes so they can’t see. Obviously this makes climbing much more difficult because you have to feel the next move— handhold to grab, or cable to step on —rather than see it. The climbers know the general direction to go (up!), and with occasional help from friends on the ground calling out hints, blindfolded climbing is a fun challenge. It’s amazing to watch too. The girls grope with their hands, and whenever possible stand on whatever knob, handhold, rope or cable they find. Confidently standing up, trusting your feet, is the key to making progress. I recently watched a Middler climb the entire 50-foot tower, blindfolded, in about 6 minutes. Incredible!
Not a day goes by that we’re not impressed by the enthusiasm, zest and talent displayed by the campers here. It appears in bold ways like this climbing ability, but perhaps more so in small things… dressing up in a spontaneous costume for dinner, non-stop lap swimming during free swims before lunch, easily managing the complexities of a 3-foot floor loom, or just accompanying a cabin mate on a trip to the dining hall for muffin break. The girls now know what to do at camp, and are happily doing it. All these girls, being great girls, in all these ways: it adds up to a beautiful spirit. It is completely wonderful.
We opened our June mini session this morning and welcomed 70 more campers to Rockbrook, joining the full session girls who arrived last week. About half of these were first-time Rockbrook girls, so for them today brought a particularly energizing mix of new faces, and waves of new sensations— the babble of the streams, earthy smells of the forest, and the whoops and cheers of the counselors. For the returning campers too, opening day is full of delight. You can feel the excitement all morning long, partly because it’s been pent-up for months now (in some cases all year!), but also because it’s so deeply felt. This is camp, and these girls are ready! Now with the dining hall full, and every camper and counselor charged with energy to spare, we have a powerful Rockbrook session underway.
As the mini session girls arrived, the full session campers and their counselors held a brief “Chapel” program focused on the theme of “Encouragement.” The Senior Line campers wrote and led the program. It included songs, like “Lean on Me”and “You’ve got a Friend in Me,” as well as quotes from Henry James about being kind, Maya Angelou, and others. It was a nice opportunity to think about why encouragement is so important and why it’s so valued here at Rockbrook for its role in forming a close community of people. Encouragement is simply a part of our camp culture.
After lunch and a brief break for Rest Hour, the whole camp enjoyed a very special afternoon event held on the lawn of the Clarke-Carrier House in the center of camp. This house, which predates the camp, was the childhood home of Rockbrook’s founder, Nancy Barnum Clark Carrier. Also known as the “Rockbrook House,” you can see its location on the camp map, and read more about its history, but it has a wonderful terraced lawn that was perfect for our event: a Renaissance Fair.
The event was amazing. It had more than 11 different activities for the girls, music, food, and thanks to everyone’s creativity, very cool costumes to bring the scene to life. There was an inflated jousting game, a water balloon catapult, a “photo booth” filled with Renaissance-inspired props, crowns to decorate, and wax candles to make. Down the path a little ways, there was a fairy garden, complete with bubbles and twinkling lights. There the girls could join a drum circle. Also nearby, counselors were painting faces, and braiding hair with flowers, leaves, and ribbons for decoration. A fortune teller offered to give advice and a henna tattoo artist decorated campers’ hands with small designs. There was plenty of food to enjoy as well, including roasted turkey legs, hunks of baguettes, popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones and cups of ginger ale. With so many options available, the campers had a blast going from one area to next. Some carried giant turkey legs, while others nibbled cotton candy. The costumes, face painting and decorations, plus the music and the backdrop of 100-year-old boxwood bushes and the historic camp house, all added up to make the afternoon unforgettable.
If you take a stroll down behind the Rockbrook tennis courts, past the lower pottery studio, and through the tunnel under the highway, you’ll pop out by the French Broad River, nearby where all our horseback riding happens at camp. There we have our fenced pastures, horse barns, riding rings, and equestrian office— all on the west side of US276, while the majority of the camp, connected by the tunnel, is up the hills on the east side.
This summer we have 30 horses at Rockbrook, all being superbly cared for by Kelsi, our Equestrian Director, and her staff of riding instructors. The personalities of the horses, their strengths and sensitivities, identify them as suitable for riders with specific skills and confidence riding. This photo, for example, shows Olivia riding Rocket, a 10-year-old thoroughbred/half linger cross who came to us from Mary Thomson at St. Andrews University. Isn’t it a great shot? Rocket can ride hunter jumpers and dressage, and has been used for several years in lessons for young children. He responds well to definite riders, and can be a little quick when jumping. It looks like he and Olivia— even their manes— are right in sync in their canter! If your daughter decides to take riding while she’s here at camp, you’ll no doubt hear about the favorite horse she rode, perhaps Otto, Watson, Annie, Quinn, or even Rocket. If you write her, you might ask about which horses she’s had a chance to ride. 😉
Ordinary dodgeball played in our gym is often part of the “Sports and Games” activity, but just outside is an octagonal court, about 20 feet wide with 30-inch high walls, that is for a special kind of dodgeball called GaGa (or Ga-ga Ball). The game is thought to have come from Israel and its name from the Hebrew word “ga” which means to touch or hit. “Israeli Dodgeball” is another name for it. Played mostly during free times at camp, like before lunch and after dinner, girls of any age and athletic ability can enjoy a game of Gaga. Any number can play too, making it easy to start a game and include everyone. The object is to hit a small, soft ball with your hands (not throw it) to hit other players in the leg, eliminating them from the game. As the girls knock the ball around inside the court, they jump wildly out of the way trying to avoid being hit. The court is just the right size to keep the game moving quickly, and soon when the last person is left (the winner) another game starts right up. Later in the week, there will certainly be an impromptu Gaga tournament for those girls gaga about gaga!
During the cabin skits tonight that were part of the Senior Line’s evening program, I was impressed by how much fun the girls were having being silly and performing for each other, but also by how close they had already become after only this first week of camp. It’s another of the amazing benefits of camp— by spending so much time together, unplugged from screens, sharing, communicating, and cooperating, your Rockbrook girls are also building emotional bonds with each other, growing more and more comfortable each day. It’s clear that camp life is fundamentally social, but perhaps different from the relationships formed at school, kindness and encouragement define the way Rockbrook girls treat each other. They are simply quick to be nice, and that really fuels the friendships being formed here. Over time, it’s this closeness that makes camp life so rich, and that’s so rewarding to experience.
Like most adults these days, I bet you have a pretty extensive To-Do list. You might even have several, or maybe the opposite, something reminiscent that you keep in your head to guide what you chose to get done at any one moment. Whether it’s kept on scraps of paper or trusted to software, we adults, apparently by virtue of our responsibilities, need to remember to get things done. We feel the need to make progress, to accomplish, and achieve. “Checking things off our list” seems to be how we live our lives (at least most of the time).
Now, after only a few days of camp this session, it struck me today how foreign that sentiment is for the girls here at Rockbrook. Sure, we “get things done” at camp too, but it’s somehow different. None of the campers seem concerned with “productivity” or very interested in “marking it done.” Instead, they happily float from activity period to free time, from meals to special events, all while singing, chatting and laughing with each other. It’s marvelous to see just how carefree everyone is.
Trying to put my finger on it, I think the girls have discovered the joy of doing things for their own sake. They have learned how to do things simply for the fun of it. Rockbrook provides the encouragement and in some ways the permission to do just that— to try new things, to be silly, to experiment, and to explore, all in the name of having fun. With almost 30 different activities to choose from, it’s easy to do too: shoot a .22 caliber rifle, jump off the mini trampoline, tie a macramé bracelet from parachute cord, launch into the lake from the water slide, bop a teatherball, leap into a ballet position… And so many more. It can be almost anything.
Maybe we can say that Rockbrook girls have a different sort of to-do list. They actually do many things at camp, whatever these might be (and again, it doesn’t seem to matter which), but these are not tasks to be completed, or steps that lead to some external goal. Odd as it sounds, a camp to-do list really has only one item on it, and it’s the same for all of us, no matter how we spend our day. We do it everyday at camp, and that’s simply to have fun.
Tonight’s Twilight was a new event that opened up all the camp stone lodges for three different slumber parties. Dressed in their pajamas, the girls chose between a dance party, spa party, or a board game party for the evening. We had music, served hot chocolate along with our regular milk and cookies, and enjoyed dancing and playing. The girls also brought their crazy creek chairs, sleeping bags, pillows and stuffed animals to make comfortable spots to sleep. Most everyone stayed up a little later than usual playing with flashlights and whispering to their friends nearby, but the evening was a great success.
Here’s a photo that illustrates a few very important things about life at Rockbrook. First notice what the girls are nibbling; it’s today’s flavor of muffin. As you may already know —since this Rockbrook tradition is truly legendary— we serve fresh baked muffins everyday between the first and second activity periods. Brigid and Becky, our camp bakers, surprise us with these special treats creating all kinds of unique flavors. Yesterday is was pumpkin chocolate chip, which is always popular, but today we enjoyed a completely new variety: vanilla bean, cherry muffins. Man, they were good! Rick explained that they soaked vanilla beans and used locally grown cherries in the recipe. Outrageous!
The girls are also standing in front of the camper mailboxes on the dining hall porch. Mail. Everybody loves it at camp. Being away from home and isolated to some extent from the outside world makes receiving mail even more delightful. Send us some news. Maybe add a silly joke, like one of these jokes for kids written by Sofie. Have you been sending letters to your daughter, or at least emails? Be sure to read these tips about how to write her a letter while she’s at camp. She will love it, and if you’re lucky she will write you back.
It looks like (By the way, clicking the photos of the blog will bring up a larger version) Ellie is holding a Hodge Podge project popular right now, a tie pillow. It’s a pillow made from two pieces of cloth “sewn” together by tying knots in strips cut around the edges. These are sometimes called ‘no-sew pillows.” They are quick and fun to make, and often become quite elaborate as the girls then decorate them with fabric paint, beads and other shiny bits.
Finally, this photo nicely typifies how happy and relaxed the campers are at Rockbrook. Quick to smile, embrace each other, and support their friends with true feelings of generosity and care, these girls are peeling away layers of habits and concerns, and discovering how good it feels to be who they really are. In the context of a community brimming with encouragement, these girls can’t help but blossom. It’s not magic, but it is marvelous.
Isn’t that an amazing tree! Just a root of it is bigger than two people! Located in the Pisgah Forest at an elevation above 5100 feet, it’s an example of an old-growth evergreen tree that’s very rare in the forest these days, following the extensive logging of this area in the early twentieth century. We stumbled upon it this morning while out hiking with the Hi-Ups (our sixteen year old campers). Of course we couldn’t just walk by without touching it, feeling it, smelling and even tasting it! And grabbing a quick snap to share.
The hour of free time after dinner we call “Twilight” brought the return tonight of our friend and master drummer Billy Zanski. He arrived from Asheville ready to teach any interested girls how to play the Djembe and DunDun drums, and to lead everyone in what essentially became a drumming dance party in the hillside lodge. Campers and counselors alike took turns drumming and dancing, each whirling their hands over the skins of the drums and their feet across the wood floor of the lodge. The whole scene was energizing and fun, a special kind of group experience that we love at Rockbrook.