Everyone In

When “Beauty and a Beat” came on, the whole floor went up at once. At the top of the dining hall, the checkerboard panel still hung in shreds where Edie had just burst through it to win the race, and below it the room was a sea of people on their feet— campers, counselors, the youngest Juniors who’d been a little wide-eyed an hour before, every last one of them dancing with glorious abandon. Everyone jumping, spinning, waving, no matter what their moves. This was a Rockbrook banquet.

A blow-out party, what we call a “banquet,” has been the grand finale of Rockbrook sessions for longer than most of us have been alive. The whole thing is dreamed up and built by our CA campers, the ninth graders, who pick a secret theme early in the session and then spend weeks quietly scheming — painting panels, plotting skits, choreographing dances, talking the kitchen into special food. The rest of camp knows only that it’s coming. The dining hall windows go dark behind hung sheets for a full day while the CAs work, and the not-knowing is half the fun.

Racing Through Rockbrook

When the bell rings signaling its start and the doors finally open, you don’t so much walk in as emerge into something. The CAs and their counselors form a tunnel in costume, streamers of pink and purple and white overhead, and you come out the other side into a place that was an ordinary dining hall this morning and now is something fantastic. For this banquet it was a racetrack, and they called it, “Racing Through Rockbrook.” Painted panels turned the walls into packed stadiums and roaring crowds, race cars, trophies, and a few sponsor banners like ExxonMobil, Red Bull, and Wonder Bread. Every table was scattered with checkered flags, little cars, souvenir cups, a custom banquet sticker, glow sticks, and racing tattoos waiting to be slapped onto an arm.

The main event lined up six drivers: Mario in full costume with his kart, Athena in a toga riding a hobby horse, Race Car Barbie in head-to-toe pink, Lily as Lightning McQueen, Elena in an F1 jumpsuit, and Edie, the Rockbrook driver, in a red jumpsuit. Greta announced the whole thing in a sport coat, tie, and an elaborate mustache, while Winslow, playing a bald-capped Mr. Clean, advertised Magic Erasers. There were dances for the sponsors, the drivers, and the pit crew of counselors. For the grand finish, Edie tore through that checkerboard panel, taking first place and winning the Redbird Cup.

The food matched the night with classic favorites: chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, tater tots, and fresh Rockbrookies, the kind of party spread that goes perfectly with skits and dancing. The music was pure pop— Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” and the rest— bright and loud and impossible for these girls to sit through.

My Favorite Part

Everyone loved the theme, wild, colorful and unique. My favorite part of every banquet is what happens when a roomful of really good friends celebrate like this together. After this much shared experience, and after growing this close, it’s an event that pulls everyone in. Nobody waits around to be cool first. Nobody needs an introduction or even a warm up. It’s a blast from the very first moment. Instant fun, for everyone— the shy ones, the show-offs, the grown-ups too— all of us completely immersed, smiling and happy. The CAs helped build that feeling for us tonight. “It’ll be a hard act to follow,” people said afterward, and they’re right. More than that though, this was a roomful of girls who already love each other, dancing like nothing matters more than being together right here and now. Banquet themes change every summer, and so do the costumes and the music. But that feeling never does.