This author profile represents a collective of people contributing to articles and blog posts on the Rockbrook Summer Camp Site. These authors include camp directors, counselors, adventure staff members, camp moms, and other volunteers, each providing their unique perspective and thoughts on life at camp.
We just learned from Phyllis S. that Shirley Lampton has died at age 84. Shirley was a counselor for several years on the Senior Line and taught singing and riflery. She and Fannybelle were dear friends and remained so for decades after attending camp.
Phyllis writes:
Shirley was a humble, self-effacing embodiment of the spirit of Rockbrook. She was a dedicated Professor of Piano at Erskine College in Due West, SC (where Fannybelle had been Dean of Women and Professor of English). She also practically gave away piano lessons at her home for countless young people. (When she moved to the retirement center, she gave her grand piano to one of her former pupils, who had gone on to study organ under Marilyn Keiser at Indiana. He attributes his success to Shirley.) When she retired from Erskine, a piano scholarship was established in her honor. (A lecture series was established for Fannybelle.)
Now there is only one older member of our little reunion group: the remarkable Dr. Ellen Lensing, age 91, who had to move to Milwaukee last year to live with her sister because her (Ellen’s) health failed. Ellen worked in the office with Jerkey and was a counselor on Senior Line.
It’s hard to say which flavor of muffin is most popular at camp. With Liz, our baker, creating so many new varieties from scratch— not to mention the traditional kinds— there are too many to choose from. There’s blueberry, but also key lime muffins, cranberry walnut, but also chocolate chip, and sprinkles, and white chocolate almond! Liz arrives at 6:30am each morning and gets to work right away to have the muffins baked and cooled by the mid-morning muffin break. Since there are more than 300 people (campers and staff members), that’s a lot of muffin trays, papers and individual dollops of batter to prepare! The muffins are always so good the girls literally run to the dining hall when they hear the bell announcing “Muffin Break.” For everyone at camp, Liz is a hero!
In fact, the entire kitchen crew are heroes at camp. Rick and his crew are really working hard to create great balanced meals for us, and this isn’t “camp food,” pre-processed, frozen, nuggets of whatnot fried and served with ketchup. Nope. All the main dishes are homemade, from the pizza dough, to the pancakes, to the chicken and dumplings. Rick puts together every meal’s menu, so for dinner yesterday we had baked tilapia, wild rice and a spinach salad. Each tilapia fillet was spiced individually, and the salad included a homemade sesame salad dressing. It’s also amazing how Rick takes time to make special vegetarian options. So for example, he made vegetarian dumplings combining green tomatoes, goat cheese and a light sauce with the dumpling dough. It was a pleasantly surprising combination, and with a big green salad, made a great meal. Sorry to talk so much about the food at camp, but after being away for a couple of nights camping, it’s hard not to!
Wednesday we took cabin photos before lunch and during rest hour. Gathering everyone in each cabin, dressed in their camp uniforms, and taking their photograph is a long tradition at Rockbrook. Part of the fun is that each cabin gets to select where it would like the photo taken and how to arrange each person. There are so many different places at camp to pose— on one of the many huge rocks, down by the lake, standing in a creek, or on a porch or set of steps. It’s fun for campers to keep their copy of their cabin photo and to collect them over the years in a scrapbook or camp photo album.
For Wednesday afternoon’s cabin day activities, the three lines split up. A few junior cabins went on short hikes to Castle Rock and Rockbrook Falls, but one stayed to put on a dress up fashion show in the Junior Lodge. Silly, silly stuff. Meanwhile, several cabins of seniors took a quick trip into the Pisgah Forest to take a dip in a swimming hole. The water was pretty chilly (like all the creeks and streams in these mountains), so it took a while for most of the girls to get wet. After dinner, all of the mini session Middlers took a trip up to Sliding Rock. Many of the girls had never been to Sliding Rock before, so it was particularly fun to see them zip down the rock and funny to hear them scream when they plunged into the cold water below. There are lots of photos of this in the RBC gallery. Naturally, on the way home, we had to stop at Dolly’s for a cone, a yummy sweet treat of some kind. Being all things chocolate, the Rockbrook camp flavor is still one of the most popular. It was a little bit of a late night for these Middlers by the time we got back to camp settled down, but we all enjoyed ourselves in true RBC fashion.
Overall Rockbrook is an excellent environment for young girls. It’s very positive and uplifting and seems to ensure that each girl feels successful and valued in their endeavors.
My daughter grew so much in her time at camp. She met new kids, loved her counselor, dealt with homesickness, and tried many, many new activities. She loved being in the beautiful camp setting.
It’s a “split leap!” Taken directly from Ballet and applied in gymnastics to Floor Exercises and the Balance Beam, this gymnastics skill begins with a leap forward where the athlete does a 180 degree split in the air, leaping off one foot and landing on the other.
The split leap is more that just doing a split in the air. Judges look for style, proper arm, hip and shoulder position as well. For example, it’s important to keep your shoulders and your hips square. This is a common error, in fact, because many young girl gymnasts have to turn their hips in order to do a split at all, and once they learn this, it’s difficult to “un-learn” it to do a split leap properly.
Of course, the trick to doing this gymnastics skill is excellent flexibility and strength, both of which come from proper form when practicing. It’s important to keep your hips and shoulders square as you stretch and improve hamstring, hip flexor and quadricep flexibility.
The Rockbrook Camp gymnastics activity is a place where girls can practice their split leap, improve their flexibility, and learn the correct techniques for this important gymnastics skill.
My daughter’s experience at camp was so positive that she actually expressed appreciation to me and her grandparents for sending her to camp, and that’s a welcome change coming from my teenager.
Back in August, Backpacker Magazine published a list of “The best cities to raise an outdoor kid.” And guess what! Our very own Brevard, North Carolina ranked number 20 in the list. These are the best places in America to “beat Nature Deficit Disorder.” That’s not too surprising when you think about all the incredible outdoor opportunities available nearby: all the Pisgah forest trails, great rock, and nearby whitewater rivers. It’s also one explanation for why this area is so fantastic for a summer camp.
Rockbrook is fortunate to be located here in the mountains of western North Carolina, and you can bet we take full advantage of the many wonderful outdoor destinations nearby. Trips to Sliding Rock, sea kayaking on Lake Jocassee, whitewater rafting on the Nantahala, rock climbing on Cedar Rock, swimming at the bottom of High Falls in the Dupont State Forest… And so many more. These are just a few of the truly special experiences made possible by the forests near camp.
If you can’t live hear and raise your kids here, then come to camp here! It’s amazing.
If you’ve ever spent time at Rockbrook, you know that it offers amazing sunsets. The camp is tucked on the eastern slope of a hill so as the sun sets, you just have to look up and you’ll see a real treat. Former counselor Kit, who recently returned for our alumni reunion, just posted on her blog a great collection of photos showing a sunset from that weekend. She also writes a little about her first experience of Rockbrook and why she loved it so much.
Isn’t that the funniest picture you’ve ever seen!? You just never know what kind of silliness will burst out down at the Rockbrook stables. Certainly making the horses “look good” is a part of it!
We love this photo also because it so beautifully represents the feeling of the riding program at Rockbrook. It shows that the girls are not only learning a lot about riding, improving their horsemanship skills and experience, but also having a great time. Being together at the barn is for some girls, their absolute favorite part of camp life. Rockbrook is well known for its riding program because it does an amazing job balancing things like this.
The riflery activity at camp, target rifle shooting, is something that really grows on you. Once you learn the safety rules at the rifle range, and get used to the basic techniques (not to mention the sound and smell of guns going off!), what can you do to improve your shot at camp?
Well, here are two important tips for shooting well. First, you need to have smooth trigger control. Learn to apply slow, consistent pressure to the trigger of the rifle so you can fire it without jerking. Squeezing the trigger quickly or erratically will definitely throw off your aim and mess up your shot. Next, it’s just as important to control your breathing when shooting, to take deep slow breaths rather than quick or hurried breaths. Here too, breathing too rapidly can make it difficult to aim steadily. Holding your breath just before pulling the trigger can help. Overall the goal here is to hold really still so you can make very small adjustments while aiming your rifle.
Back at camp you’ll have plenty of time to practice your shooting.
