With Halloween approaching, everyone’s thinking about what costume to wear and camp is a place with a highly-concentrated amount of costume ideas! It’s typical to change clothes more than once a day to dress up for things like Granny Bingo, ’80’s Dance Party, Harry Potter-themed Birthday Night, twin day, and lots of other happenings. Here are some stellar costumes from this year:
Are you ready for some adventure girls? Are you ready to put yourself out there, or up there as the case may be? Camp is the perfect place for girls to try out outdoor adventure sports. There’s rock climbing, high ropes course climbing, wilderness backpacking, camping, hiking, whitewater kayaking and rafting, to name just a few.
But what makes these adventure activities? They all are a little intense, a little uncertain, and a little scary. They often test girls’ mental resolve and determination, and sometimes require physical effort beyond the ordinary. Adventure activities usually require special safety equipment and techniques as well (think ropes, paddles, helmets, tents, etc.).
When girls first try adventure sports, they are usually surprised how well they can do. With quality instruction, encouragement, and some practice, most of the girls at camp can climb a real rock, paddle a kayak, and camp overnight in the woods— and this in just their first year at camp! Everywhere you look there are adventure girls at camp.
The equestrian program at Rockbrook follows the core philosophy guiding the camp, in particular its emphasis on encouragement and its overall non-competitive character. Being free from the pressure of competing, horseback riding becomes so much more fun for kids. The goal becomes personal satisfaction, greater self-confidence, and a simple joy of improving their equestrian skills.
Beginning and experienced riders alike thrive in this non-competitive atmosphere. Matching each rider with the right horse and the right instructor, the Rockbrook riding program allows everyone to learn at their own pace, and feel good about the experience. It’s just nice to not worry if you’re the best or not, and just focus on your own riding. Definitely exciting and fun, always educational, but relaxed too.
One of the most common questions we hear is “What’s the food like,” which translates into, “How often do you eat tater tots and chicken fingers?” The answer is, not very often! The kitchen strives to find that balance between kid-pleasing-comfort-food while at the same time being health conscious. There is always a deluxe salad bar at lunch and dinner and a vegetarian option at all meals.
Rick Hastings was our Head Chef this year. He has a background in vegetarian cooking and has also worked at a camp before. He and his fabulous kitchen crew welcomed campers into the kitchen to help prepare the day’s meals and snacks – including muffins for the daily mid-morning muffin break!
Here is what the Senior linehead counselor, Sarah Thompson, said about the food and kitchen staff this year:
“I cannot praise the kitchen staff highly enough. A happy camp is a well-fed camp and they feed us exceedingly well! The magic started during staff orientation (Capers? Fresh Basil? Is this really camp food?) and did not let up as the summer weared on. The food is healthy, innovative and delicious.
What impresses me the most, though, is the staff’s attitude. They are unfailingly helpful and upbeat, even when faced with hordes of hungry and demanding people. More importantly, they realize that the kitchen affords valuable opportunities for the camper. The kitchen staff has opened its doors to several campers this summer, allowing girls to assist. Often, they are girls who are somehow most in need of the opportunity. There are some places at camp – the climbing tower, for instance – where girls are clearly going to gain confidence and other skills. This year’s kitchen staff has turned the kitchen into such a place for campers. The knowledge, independence and self-confidence they have instilled in the girls is nothing short of amazing.”
“Cooks you made a wonderful dinner! You know we’ll never get any thinner!” – From the Cook Song
Do you have this in common with Napoleon Dynamite— being a tetherball champ? Sure you’ve played before at camp, and you know how to play tetherball, but maybe you need a few more strategies to really pump up your game. Here’s a couple of things to practice.
The most important strategy is mastering an extreme angle when serving. By hitting the ball sharply down, it can swing high over your opponent’s head. This is always a good tactic.
It’s also important to use both hands when playing tetherball. You can hit the ball more powerfully, but also add unexpected spins and hits by changing which hand hits the ball. You can surprise and confuse the other player with different fast/slow, open/closed, left/right hand maneuvers.
Equally important to mastering tetherball is being quick on your feet. Moving forward and backward quickly, and knowing when to move sideways. This not only makes it difficult for the other player to decide how to serve or hit the ball, it gives you a better chance to make defensive hits.
Of course, being a tetherball sports champ takes practice, but that’s what the games at camp are for!
OK, do you have any other tetherball tips, strategies or tactics?
In the recent debate over how many days kids should stay in school, it’s often claimed that they could learn more by shortening the summer vacation. More days studying math, science, arts and reading would make our kids more educated, it’s claimed. Certainly this is true; the more you study something, the better your competency in that subject. However, what is lost by taking time from summer and devoting it to further study? If we choose more school time, what are we neglecting as a result?
One thing that would clearly suffer, and something that summer camps are known to enhance, is time outside, sustained outdoor activity for kids. It’s during the summer that kids have the time and the permission to play outside. They can return to nature, explore all the amazing details of the environment, and really feel what so many of their ancestors felt outdoors. Being inside at school most of day, and for most of the days each year, there are very few opportunities for kids to enjoy outdoor activity. They suffer from what Richard Louv has now famously dubbed “Nature Deficit Disorder.” The psychological, personal and intellectual consequences of our kids losing touch of nature are now well understood, and are widely condemned. Extending our kid’s school year, and thereby further limiting their time outside in Nature deserves that same condemnation.
This is also an environmental protection issue. If we reduce the ability of our kids to experience and know the outdoors, we make it much less likely they will value and love it. If their Nature Deficit Disorder is made worse by reducing their time outside of school, they won’t feel strongly about the wonders Nature provides, and consequently they will feel less concern for protecting the environment. Not knowing and loving nature from their personal experience, they’ll be less apt to protect it. Here again, time outside (and away from school) makes kids more human. It provides another, equally important, form of education. Denying them opportunities to learn outside, even when in service of traditional academic learning, is a perilous position for us all.
Our friend Carroll Parker dug this photo out of his files and emailed it to us the other day. Carroll grew up around Rockbrook because his father helped Mr. Carrier build the camp back in 1921. This aerial view of the camp shows western North Carolina and all it offered back then— the thick forests, streams, the “ever-bearing raspberries,” the French Broad River horseback riding ring, tennis courts, chicken coop, horse barn, gardens, and an apple orchard.
It’s fascinating to see what western North Carolina and Rockbrook Camp looked like back 1920s and 30s. Stay tuned, we’ll be posting more archival photos soon.
Cherie was part of our Adventure trip staff this past summer. She is currently a student at Brevard College. She heard about Rockbrook through Clyde Carter, who is the Chair of the Outdoor Department throughout the school year and also Rockbrook’s Outdoor Director during the summer. Before coming to camp, Cherie did a 21-day paddling and backpacking trip with school. She also received a certificate in Wilderness First Response and Water Safety. Cherie lived at camp, in the cabin known as “Dilly”, that is built right next to a creek.
Throughout the summer, campers and staff often serenaded Cherie by singing, “Cherie, Cherie Baby”, usually when she was coming up to announce a rafting, climbing or backpacking trip after a meal. Her main duties included packing the food, raft guiding, belaying and making sure campers stayed safe. When she wasn’t out on a trip, she helped at the Alpine Tower, and occasionally offered roll clinics in the lake. And of course, in the evening she’d dress up for that night event!
Why I Enjoy Working with Seniors
By the time campers are Seniors (13 – 15 yo), they’re self-sufficient enough that they can take care of their basic needs on their own, and as their counselor you can focus on getting to know the person they are becoming. It’s a hard age, and being around Seniors is like taking a time warp to watch yourself as you were growing up. You’re just close enough to their age to remember exactly what is was like, as as their counselor you are in the perfect position to give them the helpful or encouraging word you would have liked, needed or even did get to help you through all the crazy transitions of adolescence.
Working with Seniors in your activity has the potential to be incredibly rewarding, because you can go past teaching basic skills and get into more of the technique and finesse of whatever i you teach. Watching a senior’s growth is amazing, because it’s often by leaps and bound you l have thought possible.
That being said, it’s important to remember that seniors are still campers. They still get homesick, sometimes forget to do their chores, refuse to get out of bed in the morning or go to bed at night and have their bursts of teenage sarcasm. But seniors are also funny, have interesting personal histories, and are just starting to articulate their goals and dreams to themselves – and maybe even to you, if you take time to listen. Every line has its own unique wonder, but working with seniors has helped me grow this summer in ways that I would not have imagined. Thank you, Senior Line!
Written by 1st time Senior Counselor, Kiva Nice-Webb who attends Elon University.
“Camp is a place to make countless unforgettable memories. You will often find, both Rockbrook campers and staff start stories with the phrase, ‘this one time, at camp’.
While I’ve made several wonderful memories this summer, one memory in particular that will stay with me always was the 24 hour period in which my campers, co-counselor and I set up and carried out 3rd session’s banquet.
Banquet is a HUGE deal to not only the CA’s ( the older campers who come up with the theme, plan and run the banquet) but to the entire camp. Personally, I wanted to do anything I could to help my campers put on the best banquet in Rockbrook history! The night before Banquet, my campers and I worked through our exhaustion by rockin’ out to Brittany Spears, Lady Gaga, etc., as well as maintaining a sugar rush from cookie dough and candy. The look on the girls’ faces after they had finished setting up was priceless – they were amazed with all that they had accomplished, as was I. Banquet itself was a great success and I was extremely proud of my fabulous CA’s. Every memory I’ve shared with them was unforgettable but Banquet was an especially great memory.”