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.
One of the most common questions we receive about our equestrian summer camp for kids is if girls can learn how to jump. Naturally, equestrian jumping is an advanced skill and it requires a great deal of practice and knowledge to do it safely. That’s why, while the answer is “yes, you can learn how to jump,” you must first be good at most other horseback riding techniques. Equestrian jumping requires a high level of accomplishment that you have to work up to. At our pony camp, step by step, you’ll have the right amount of challenge added to your lessons, and eventually you’ll be ready for jumping. With good personal instruction and well-trained horses like those at the Rockbrook summer equestrian program, kids can learn how to jump. Over your time at camp, you’ll be really good!
You sure can! In fact, knitting has become one of the many needlecrafts at camp girls are really enjoying. You might think it’s old fashioned or something that only your grandmother would do, but knitting is really cool! And it’s not that hard to learn. With some basic pointers and a little practice you’ll be able to make a simple scarf, or even something more difficult like a hat.
The younger girls particularly like using the “Nifty Knitters.” These are special round, handheld looms that make knitting tubes really easy (there’s one on the shelf in the background in the photo). They are a fun way to see how knitting works and to make quick progress on a project before moving on to using knitting needles.
Knitting is one of those great crafts girls can easily do at home. It can easily become a life-long activity to enjoy for years to come.
Outdoor adventure is one of the core camp activity areas at Rockbrook. Our outdoor adventure summer camps focus on backpacking (hiking and camping), rock climbing, whitewater rafting and kayaking. Most recently, rock climbing and kayaking have become increasingly popular, especially with the teens and older girls at camp.
After learning basic kayaking techniques like how to “wet exit” (That’s when you get out of the boat when it tips over upside down.), or how to “roll” (That’s when you roll back rightside up instead of wet exiting.), we head out to some of the local rivers for more outdoor action. For the more advanced paddlers, we’ll even take trips to the Nantahala river, a Class I, II and III whitewater river nearby. The mountains of NC, and the rivers that run between them, are just perfect for summer camps and this kind of adventure.
Tennis always seems to be a popular sports activity at Rockbrook. Sure there are lessons and chances to have an instructor teach you more about how to be a better tennis player. Sure we have little tournaments (both singles and doubles) now and then. We can always improve our tennis skills like that. But we also play plenty of games, activities that while involving tennis are designed to be as fun (and sometimes silly) as possible.
One is called “Around the World” and it involves a group of children dividing and lining up on opposite baselines. A child from one side hits to the other side and after hitting, runs and gets in line on the other side. It’s kind of a rotation of players as everyone runs to the right around the court. The goal is to see how many people in a row can hit good shots back. You can imagine; it’s lots of action and lots of fun!
Often when parents begin researching a camp for teens they have some kind of growth experience in mind, something they hope their teen will gain from his or her time at camp. Sure they want the experience to be fun, but parents also believe it will be formative too. There’s a lot to go through in your teen years, so having a place in the summer that helps is a good thing.
Some camps are explicitly designed to address these kinds of issues and provide specific activities to help teens gain “personal power,” build “self-confidence and self-esteem” and develop “deep friendships.” Others, and Rockbrook’s teen program fits in here, emphasize creating a friendly and noncompetetive environment where teens can relax, be themselves, and try new activities. In this kind of setting and with true encouragement and support, teens find they have hidden talents and abilities and they do grow more confident and capable. The culture of camp, as the foundation for the excitement and fun, is the driving force for the transformation our teenagers experience and parents appreciate.
Here’s an interesting article that caught our eye over at the Christian Science Monitor, “Mom to Dad: ‘Think Jimmy’s Doing O.K. at Camp?'” It’s a short piece written by Dave Horn about his time as an overnight camp counselor in the 60s. While parents today have online photo galleries and blogs to see how their children are doing at camp, he notes just a few years ago there were only letters. Parents had to mostly wonder and wait to find out about their camper’s camp experience.
But what if the campers didn’t write home much? After all, they’re having too much fun to stop and write a letter. Camps helped by asking the camper’s counselors to write quick notes to parents, reassuring them that all is well at camp (a tradition Rockbrook still follows). To help his young campers even more, Dave Horn turned this letter writing into a game. He had each camper take turns playing the “boss” and dictating a letter home. The camper would sit down and recite what he wanted to tell his parents and Dave would type it out on his portable typewriter. In this case, 1960s technology helping kids communicate from overnight camp.
I wonder if he mentioned hula hooping in your bathrobe? 🙂
Here is one of the arts and crafts activities the girls enjoyed this summer at camp.
Can you tell what it is? Pine cones tied to a branch with string— it’s a mobile. What’s fun is using different sized pine cones and then arranging them with different lengths of string. When the stick has more than one branching part, even better! This kind of craft activities is really like making a sculpture. It’s putting three-dimensional objects together to end up with some cool art. One girl turned her mobile into a bird feeder by adding some peanut butter and birdseed to the pine cones. Functional art too! Arts and crafts are always fun at camp.
Back in July, Nancy Gibbs wrote a short article in Time Magazine called “The Meaning of Summer Camp.” There’s a lot she discusses, but the article’s tagline gets to the heart of it: “It used to be about acquiring survival skills. Now it’s about the social skills that need work.” Parents used to send their kids to summer camp to toughen up a bit, to learn practical outdoor skills. Being away from the “comforts of home” and away from parents’ assistance, made this possible. Now, Gibbs observes, camp is a place for kids to “unplug” and explore life without cellphones, text messaging, and their Facebook accounts. In other words, camp is still a place to break from the familiar, and when faced with new challenges, grow in new ways. Gibbs identifies the social benefits (learning to share, communicate, cooperate and so forth) that follow, but we should add physical (like becoming a stronger swimmer), emotional (like the joy of being completely silly), and psychological (like becoming more confident and self-assured) benefits as well.
Sometimes it’s hard to see this, but all these benefits of a kids camp, not to mention how fun it is, arise because camp is so different from life at home and at school. Preserving that difference is one of the main reasons Rockbrook doesn’t allow cellphones, computers, Internet access, electronic games, and other forms of technology that tether kids to what they have at home. It’s one reason why sneaking a cellphone into camp is a terrible idea. While it may make you feel better, it will dilute, if not destroy, what summer camp is all about.
Camp is a place to acquire new skills and grow up a little while having a great time with your friends. It works because it’s not the same as home, and that’s a good thing.
There are people in my life who I admire, who I emulate, because they, without hope for award or acknowledgment, joyfully and selflessly give all that they can in service to others. Many of these people are campers and counselors at Rockbrook Camp.
Rockbrook campers are often recognized for their good deeds by being awarded colorful, way-cool Bend-It-Back bracelets. And I mean that. They truly are way-cool. A mark of pride and contribution to the community.
I watch my co-workers exemplify selfless generosity every day as they put campers first, and I watch campers recognize this generosity and give forth to others on their own as well. From volunteering to do the dishes to making a card for a friend who doesn’t feel well, RBC folks are about helping out.
To give selflessly – to put others before oneself – is a daunting task. But once the joy that is the product of such giving is recognized, it becomes the lifeblood of one’s daily action; it is the lifeblood of this place. This is a joyous place that depends upon gracious giving and gratitude. May the bracelets be a reminder of this joy and the camp that thrives in it.
More comments and memories from a Rockbrook Alumna…
“Every memory is a favorite memory, but there was one that my friend and I do get a kick out of (by the way, her name is Natalie Berry and we have been best friends for 30 yrs). One year our cabin was one of the wild cabins. We all were friends and had gone to Rockbrook for several years. We came up with this name that whenever anything went wrong we blamed “Bob.” Needless to say it picked up like wild fire and we got in trouble for stirring things up. It’s one of those ‘You had to be there’ situations.
“I truly miss Rockbrook. It is my childhood and a great past that I can share and relate with my grandmother Virginia Summer, who also went there. Now I have a 7yr old daughter who I sing camp songs to. My wish is to send her to Rockbrook and who knows maybe one day she’ll have a daughter that she can send too.”
