Since 1921, Rockbrook has offered swimming lessons to campers of all skill levels using the Red Cross swimming system. In those early years swimming was required each day for every girl. After an 8 week session ( there was only one session of camp back then) you would be a fantastic swimmer! Rockbrook also taught Lifeguarding classes to the older campers to help prepare them as they developed into counselors themselves. One famous Rockbrook swim teacher was Helen Chiere, who taught swimming for over 25 summers. She taught generations of Rockbrook girls how to swim and was famous for her style of instruction which included sayings like “scrape the jelly off the belly” for learning the backstroke, or “pick an apple and put it in the basket” for learning the side stroke. Her humor and warmth helped all the junior campers have a great experience at the lake.
The camp lake is still the center of daily life at Rockbrook! Between swim classes, free swim, canoeing, kayaking and trips down the water slide it is always abuzz with activity. Most of the campers these days already know how to swim, but lessons and fun are still at the center of it all at the lake. And as the camp song says: “Swimming, diving, I’ve been striving, striving hard to pass my test, and before the summers over, I’ll be swimming with the best. Jump on the spring board, dive in, SPLASH!”
