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January 7, 2014May 26, 2020 • Counselors • Sofie Ehlinger

Deeds For Our Daughters

Whether we have children or not, we are always in a position to change the world. Every day, we can choose to engage in ways that can inspire a younger generation. A few small changes in our own lives can make a world of difference to the girls who look up to us. We can teach the girls in our lives to take themselves seriously while continuing to navigate through a fun, playful life full of meaning and love.

Ignore More Mirrors
The time we spend plucking, primping, analyzing, pulling, highlighting, and altering our appearance in front of a mirror speaks volumes to our daughters. Learning to appreciate our own natural image will help our daughters understand the beauty in who they are- just as they are.

Read More Books
Engaging ourselves intellectually and emotionally through literature encourages our daughters to do the same. Books allow us to travel to exotic places and meet new people. More than that, however, books introduced us to topics and emotions that we may not ever experience through everyday living. With every page we turn, our daughters watch us elevate our worldview and sense of self-worth.

Explore Government
Becoming politically informed isn’t about conflict, left-wing versus right-wing, it’s about community. Demonstrating to our daughters that we know and care about politics puts into place a lesson in altruism- people and things exist beyond our own social circles and we should care about them.

Find A New Hobby
Learn a language, take a cooking class, start fishing, or camping, or painting, or playing tennis. Do something new, anything new. We help to open the world up for our daughters when we move beyond our own comfort zone.

Compliment Beyond Clothes
Move away from compliments that highlight physical appearance- that cute bow, those beautiful curls, new shoes. We can value our daughters with praise founded on their intellectual accomplishments, conversation style, and athletic or artistic feats. We can help our daughters move away from a life of being pretty and into to a life of doing good.

Calculate Tip Without a Calculator
More women than ever are moving into the math and science sectors of the workforce. Practicing mental math in front of our daughters make numbers and logic commonplace. Long division is nothing to be scared of!

Get Angry
Get angry. It’s not an emotion we should hide from our daughters. Things will upset us. We can let our daughters watch us experience anger without any shame or guilt attached to the emotion. We can also demonstrate to them how to process anger in a healthy, productive way.

Laugh
Laugh daily and laugh loudly. We can bring joy into our own lives by teaching our daughters that life is funny and lovely. Shining bright and living hard not only lightens up our own path, but may even illuminate the way for those following in our footsteps.

You can apply these anytime! Whether it’s working at camp or living your broader life, you can make a difference.

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December 19, 2013December 11, 2022 • History • Grace Wallace

Throwback Thursday: A Day in the Life of a 1926 Camper

The rising bell tolls at 7:15 and you open your eyes, eager to start another day at Rockbrook Camp for Girls. You and your cabin-mates jump out of your low cots and slip into your thick, black, woolen swim suits. You pour out of your cabin and join the other girls of the camp as, blinking sleep from their eyes, they make their way to the lake for the morning dip.

The water is as cold as ever, but by the time you emerge, the allure of going back to bed has left you completely. You are fully awake. You run back up the hill with your cabin-mates, while your counselors (local schoolteachers, camp-mothers, and the like) follow more slowly behind. You only have twenty minutes to put on your uniform and get ready for the day, before you are due in the Dining Hall to help set up for breakfast.

As you put on your billowy gray bloomers, and your white blouse and tie, smells from the Dining Hall begin to reach your cabin. The cooks have been up for hours already, gathering the vegetables from Mr. Carrier’s giant garden at the bottom of the hill, milking the camp cows for fresh milk, and collecting eggs from the camp chickens.

Breakfast passes quickly. Quiet songs are sung at breakfast—every camper and counselor joins in, weaving together a peaceful harmony of voices. You all gather on the hill for Morning Assembly—a sea of girls in white, red, and gray, whispering amongst themselves, and trying not to catch the attention of the counselors. Mrs. Carrier leads the camp in the morning prayer, then reads out the lists of hiking and canoeing trips leaving camp today. You know that your name isn’t on any of the lists, so rather than listening, you spend your time planning out which activities you’ll do today. Horseback riding, perhaps, or maybe weaving and a bit of canoeing.

Assembly gets out a little early, so you and your cabin-mates race back to the cabin, to spruce the place up before 10 o’clock Inspection. You spend five breathless minutes shoving your sopping swimsuits under your beds, and smoothing your sheets, until the cabin looks spotless.

You pass inspection, thank goodness. The rest of your morning is a blur of horseback riding, tennis, and swimming. Lunch is succulent—every vegetable, fruit, and piece of meat is taken from the Rockbrook farm, so it is all as fresh and filling as you could wish.

During Rest Hour, you can’t bring yourself to rest. You are too excited for the afternoon, when you will practice for the dance pageant that you and a few other campers will perform at the end of the session. The counselors have spent the last week sewing the fairy costumes out of old pillowcases, and today is the first day you get to try them on.

You’re the first person to arrive at the rehearsal in the Hillside Lodge, and you immediately begin changing into the costume. It’s a relief, really, to trade the hot, scratchy bloomers for the lighter cotton shift. Most of the girls take ballet at home, but the dance is much less formal and more fun than any of you are used to. Mainly, it is an excuse to leap and run around for a few hours in clothes much more comfortable than the camp uniform. But still, the dance is coming together, and none of you can wait for the day that you get to perform it on the lawn of Mrs. Carrier’s house.

Dinner is boisterous—the heat of the day is ebbing away and the songs are spirited and loud. Some of the younger girls get carried away and begin banging on the tables in the rhythm of the song, but Mrs. Carrier puts a stop to that quickly.

Mrs. Carrier is always a fan of fun, you know, but she does expect her girls to behave themselves. The girls look sheepish, but Mrs. Carrier begins a rousing rendition of “Rockbrook Camp Forever,” which brings the smiles right back to their faces.

The lowering of the flag after dinner is a solemn affair, as it always is. Mrs. Carrier leads the camp in the evening prayer: “Oh God, give us clean hands, clean words, clean thoughts…” When she is finished, she returns to her house for the evening, and the counselors start up a big game of freeze-tag on the hill.

At 8:30, when your eyelids are beginning to feel heavy, and your footsteps beginning to drag, you make your way to the lodge for milk and crackers. By 9:00, you are dressed in your nightgown in your cabin, holding hands in a circle with your cabin-mates, singing “Taps” softly to one another.

As you lay your head on your pillow and listen to the songs of the crickets rise and swell through the forest around you, you can’t help but realize how lucky you are. Not every girl gets to escape the fast-paced modern world, to spend a few weeks of freedom in the mountains. Not every girl gets to let go of propriety and manners, and dance like a wild thing for an entire afternoon. Not every girl gets to have a perfect day, then go to bed knowing that the next day will be even better, and the next even better than that.

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December 17, 2013February 29, 2024 • Counselors • Sofie Ehlinger

10 Traits of Beautiful People

Beautiful people have a way of moving about the world- there is just something about them. We all stop and take notice. Beauty transcends hair, clothes, or posture. In fact, it has entirely nothing to do with physical appearance. When we meet a truly beautiful person, we recognize them right away and they inspire us to become the best version of ourselves.

Read on as we put our finger on exactly what makes a beautiful person beautiful.

1. They Are A Bright Spot.
Beautiful people leave you feeling refreshed. A beautiful person understands how to energize, support, encourage, and love the people around them. You can count on a beautiful person to laugh at your jokes, answer your calls, ask engaging questions, notice your haircut, and provide inspiring advice.

2. They Listen.
Often times, we listen to others as a stepping stone on which to place our own story or experience. As others speak, we cognitively calculate our next words. A beautiful person truly listens for the sake of understanding. A beautiful person approaches conversations as an opportunity to strengthen her connections and relationships. She turns off her own mental chatter and wraps herself up in the moment.

3. Their Lips Turn Up.
Beautiful people smile, simple as that. Throughout the day, a beautiful person’s lips are busy smiling, laughing, and singing the praises of the world.

4. They Bring Out The Good.
Beautiful people take refuge in the happiness of others. They posses a desire to help others experience joy. You can count on a beautiful person to be your biggest cheerleader.

5. They Compliment.
A beautiful person takes the time to highlight the beauty in others. They seamlessly elevate people’s sense of self-worth simply by complimenting the world as they see fit. They don’t worry about being too over-the-top.

6. They Notice The Little Things.
A beautiful person fills her day with beautiful moments. She doesn’t limit herself by only celebrating the “big” moments in life- promotions, holidays, proposals. She rejoices everyday- green lights, blue skies, funny jokes.

7. They Understand The Spotlight.
And when to share it. A beautiful person can read a crowd. She knows when to take the lead and she understands when to pull back. Sharing credit and praise makes a beautiful person feel fulfilled.

8. They Understand That A Hard Life Is An Interesting Life.
She knows that life is full of speed bumps and set backs. A beautiful person doesn’t shy away from dissenters. She realizes instead that life will throw you a punch now and then to keep you on your toes. A beautiful person understands that a life that lacks troubles and stresses is a life that lacks color and excitement.

9. They Are True To Themselves.
We spend most of the day speaking to ourselves. Our inner dialogue guides our day, it directs our actions. A beautiful person takes ownership of her inner voice and directs in a way that feeds her soul. Beautiful people have fine-tuned their self-critique to a brief experience with the intent to improve. Other than that, beautiful people treat themselves kindly. After a quick analysis, they let missteps and mistakes go and engage in gentle and encouraging self-talk.

10. They Understand Beauty.
A beautiful person looks beyond the size of her jeans, the hue of her lips, and the length of her hair. Beauty, as understood by beautiful people, is not something you see, it’s something you feel. A life spent engaged in meaningful, uplifting activities trumps a life spent in front of the mirror.

And camp is where we see it, and experience for ourselves. Our best selves blossom with caring camp counselors, caring camp friends, and a caring community. So much beauty!

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December 12, 2013May 17, 2020 • Summer Camp • Grace Wallace

A Christmas Perm

A Rockbrook Girl’s Night Before Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all round the world,

Were the coolest of cool, those great Rockbrook girls.

Their trunks were still packed in the corners of their rooms,

And they offered camp-colors to wintery gloom.

The world was a snow globe, all twinkling and white,

And the houses and halls were all decked in their lights.

Their tummies were warmed by hot chocolates and ciders,

And the girls never worried ‘bout snakes or wolf spiders.

The holiday season brought so much to love:

With ice skating, skiing, warm mittens and gloves,

With Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali,

With New Year’s, and Christmas with boughs of bright holly.

But while sugarplums danced in the heads of their friends,

And their brothers’ discussions of gifts would not end,

The campers they dreamed of a different time,

When the weather was warm and the company was fine.

They dreamed of the days spent beneath the hot sun,

Of laughter and joy and unstoppable fun.

They dreamed of old cabins of weathered brown wood,

Of the Dining Hall songs and the dinners so good.

For these girls have a place of which only they know,

A place that still calls them through sleet and through snow.

A queendom of summer, all wreathed in tall trees,

Governed by girls with dirty faces and knees.

A place of the Midget Man, Killroy, and Nancy,

A place where the costumes make everyone fancy.

A place where the coolest is she who sings loudest,

A place where the silliest is always the proudest.

There may be no presents, no Santas or stockings,

There may be no carolers on front doors knocking,

There may be no snowmen at that time of year,

But there’s no other time with more pep or more cheer.

It’s a time that’s for rollicking, frolicking joys,

A time just for girls, with no smelly old boys.

It’s a time that’s for hiking, for swimming, for climbing,

A time that’s for Honosorarius rhyming.

It’s a time when directors can be seen walking,

And always with counselors and campers are talking.

A time when sweet Sarah stands up at the mic,

And says to the list’ners in a voice kind and bright,

“Now campers! Now counselors! Now barn staff and nurses!

On paddlers! On crafters! On singers of verses!

To the top of the Tower and to Rockbrook Falls,

Now hike away, climb away, dance away all!

For this is your time, on this midsummer’s day,

And it shall be spent in your favorite way.

It’s a time that we treasure in all of our hearts,

A time full of many incredible parts.”

So campers, though you are now spread far and wide,

Though you may have grown older, left camp days behind,

Just think of dear Rockbrook, in days cold and dark,

And its spirit will bring summer’s warmth to your heart.

And the day will come soon, for you or your daughter,

When you both stand once more beside cold running water,

And listen to red birds sing high in the pine,

And hear sounds of Rockbrook down each merry line.

But for now, let me tell you, with heart full of joy,

That I wish you best wishes for you to enjoy.

May your holiday season be happy and bright,

Merry Christmas from Rockbrook; to all a goodnight!

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December 10, 2013December 29, 2020 • Campers • rbc

Top 10 Reasons Every Rockbrook Girl Misses Camp

Every Rockbrook girl knows the bittersweet feeling that comes along with leaving camp at the end of the session. We’ve had such an awesome time meeting new friends and trying new things, and leaving it all behind seems impossible. The friends and memories made keep camp on our minds all year long. We all know the truth behind the words, “The summers fly by, but the winters drag on.” So, in an attempt to lessen the pain of children being “campsick”, this is an ode to every Rockbrook girl who misses her days in the heart of the wooded mountain.

The Top 10 Reasons Every Rockbrook Girl Misses Camp

1. Simple Days

I know what you must be thinking- camp isn’t SIMPLE! No way! We do fun things all day and wear crazy costumes to lunch and paint our faces and dance in the dining hall!! Allow me to clarify: camp is really the only place where having fun is our main job. We don’t have to worry about finishing our homework, making it to basketball practice on time or keeping up with our Facebook page. It’s nice to escape the pressures of home and just enjoy ourselves. At Rockbrook, time slows down, life is easy, we find fulfillment in the simple things — wearing crazy costumes, painting our faces, and dancing our hearts out.

2. Muffins by Katie

Our awesome baker, Katie, is the best of the best, the cream of the crop, at the top of the totem pole when it comes to making muffins. Whether it’s a fancy mint chocolate chip recipe or a more simple “funfetti” or blueberry muffin, we can’t get enough! Katie’s muffins are just what we need after first period, and muffin withdrawals are no joke after we leave camp. Check out this video that shows just how important muffin break is at Rockbrook.

3. Counselors Like This

We all know what it feels like to have that counselor. You know the one I’m talking about — she makes you feel special because she truly cares about you. She’s interested in you and is there to make your camp experience the best she can. She’s cool because she understands that camp is cool. She’s like a fun older sister, like the most awesome baby sitter you’ve ever had. Most importantly, she’s a role model and a friend.

4. Friendship Bracelets

Chevron. Twist. Totem pole. Diamond. Ladder. No matter how old we are, making friendship bracelets is a hobby enjoyed by Rockbrook girls far and wide. We spend countless hours at camp making bracelets for our friends. The only thing better than receiving a friendship bracelet is giving one. Free swims and twilights spent on the hill making friendship bracelets are when we make some of our best memories- memories that stay with us long after our bracelets become dull, and after many years, eventually fall off.

5. Dolly’s Ice Cream

I’d be lying if it weren’t included on the list. I’ve heard Rockbrook girls describe Dolly’s as the “best ice cream place in the world” on more than one occasion. Whether you choose to order our very own flavor, Rockbrook Chocolate Illusion, or to go a different route, chances are you won’t be disappointed. There’s no doubt that Rockbrook girls are missing Dolly’s this time of year.

6. Friends Like These

Camp friends are the best friends. Ask any Rockbrook girl, and she will tell you that this is true. It is because at camp we get to know one another for who we really are. The relationships that we form are based on real feelings, not on superficial things. At camp, it doesn’t matter what brand our new shoes are, or if we have the coolest new cell phone. It doesn’t matter if we are big or small, tall or short. What matters is how we treat people, how we make them feel. Camp friendships are built to last a lifetime.

7. The Songs

“Are you a camel, a good looking camel, and say, have you got a hump?”

“The rosy mist of the morning, veil it anew at dawn, like a fairyland of beauty…”

“I wish I was a honosorarius a ratamatatamy, a ha-ha-ha.”

“(Insert all lyrics to Oh I Was Born here)”

Yes, the Rockbrook songs are filled with silly lyrics like these. We all know that we’ve randomly started singing these songs at home or at school on more than one occasion. There’s nothing like singing along to a good Rockbrook song in the dining hall or around the campfire.

8. Moments Like This

Camp is silly. Camp is carefree. Camp is relaxed, and camp is totally FUN! Ask any Rockbrook girl where her happy place is, and I bet she thinks back to a moment like this. A moment in which nothing matters but the present, you feel totally accepted as your truly are, and time stands still. It’s special beyond words.

9. The Rockbrook (Harlem) Shake

Things like this happen at Rockbrook. A lot. They are wild and magical and unheard of everywhere else. We miss having the opportunity to dress up in crazy costumes and dance with all of our friends. Pure fun and energy among friends. This video of the Rockbrook Shake reminds us just how wonderful camp is.

10. The Spirit of Rockbrook is Real

There is a feeling that we get as Rockbrook girls — one that we can’t really describe. A feeling of belonging, a feeling of certainty, a feeling of self-worth. It’s this feeling that causes us to miss each other throughout the year, that causes us to yearn for the days of summer. We know it’s real, because we’ve never felt a love like this. It’s this feeling that assures us that no other camp is like our own, that no other place can do for us what this one has. It’s the Spirit of Rockbrook, and it’s with us always.

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December 9, 2013January 31, 2022 • Counselors • Sofie Ehlinger

101 Conversation Starters With Kids

Get ready to start gabbing! The moment you become interested, you’ll help kids feel more interesting. These good conversation starters are sure to get any child’s inner chatter box talking. Some are funny, and others just get you thinking. Even if you don’t work at camp as a counselor, use these topics during long car rides, for dinner table discussions, as sleep-over games, or anytime you want to have a good belly laugh with the kids (and teens!) in your life. Just start asking. You’ve got to start the convo. But once you do, watch the conversation unfold!

1. If you could make up a brand new school subject, what would it be?
2. Can you remember a time when you laughed so hard you snorted?
3. Make up a new holiday.
4. What is you favorite letter of the alphabet? Why?
5. If someone gave you $50 dollars what would you do with it?
6. Would you rather eat your least favorite vegetable or have extra homework?
7. When you are sad how do you make yourself feel better?
8. Would you rather pack your lunch or buy from the cafeteria?
9. What is your favorite day of the week?
10. What is the best way to eat an Oreo?

Talking With Children Conversation topics

11. What do you normally do during recess?
12. Which state shape do you like the best?
13. Do you have a favorite place in your town?
14. Would you rather scream or whisper?
15. Would you rather take a picture or be in the picture?
16. When you play tic-tac-toe, do you choose to be Xs or Os?
17. When you’re waiting for something, how do you pass the time?
18. What is your favorite chore?
19. If you could do one thing, everyday, for the rest of your life, what would it be?
20. Once you lie down in bed, how long does it take you to fall asleep?

21. If you had a robot for one day what would you ask it to do?
22. What is your favorite thing about yourself?
23. How do you make friends?
24. What’s your favorite thing to do on a snow day?

25. If you could design a zoo, which animal would you have the most of?
26. If you could change one thing about your room what would it be?
27. Do you like riding in the car?
28. When you woke up this morning what was the first thing that you thought about?
29. Do you normally do chores and homework right away or do you wait until the last minute?
30. Would you rather take a shower or a bath?

31. If your parents told you that you could have dessert for breakfast what would you eat?
32. What’s the silliest thing you can think to do with a paper plate?
33. Do you think it’s important to pay attention every single second when you’re at school?
34. What’s the best smell you’ve ever smelled?
35. Make up a new sport.
36. Do you have to use your eraser a lot at school?
37. Have you ever fallen asleep when you didn’t mean to?
38. How many books do you have in your room?
39. Would you ever wear your clothes inside-out at school?
40. Can you remember a time when you made someone smile?

41. How old were you when you learned to tie your shoes?
42. Do you think you could go an entire day without talking?
43. If you could turn one room of your house into a giant trampoline which one would it be?
44. Have you ever told a small fib so as not to hurt someone’s feelings?
45. Are you good at tongue twisters?
46. Do you have the same first name as anyone else at your school? Do you like that?
47. Do you like to look at a clock or do you prefer not knowing what time it is?
48. What’s your favorite joke?
49. Who do you talk to the most on the phone?
50. What’s your favorite radio station?

51. Do you prefer animated movies or films with real actors/ actresses?
52. Would you rather watch a movie with no sound or listen to a radio program with no image?
53. If you had the opportunity to visit the moon for a day, would you?
54. Describe your perfect cookie.
55. If you could put frosting on any food in the world what would it be?
56. If you became President of the United States, what would you do?
57. When was the last time you helped your parents without being asked?
58. If your favorite toy could talk, what would it say?
59. What would you do if you found the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow?
60. Make up a song about your favorite teacher.

61. If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?
62. What makes someone a good friend?
63. When was the last time you received a letter in the mail?
64. What is the longest word you know how to spell?
65. What are the two largest numbers that you can add together in your head?
66. What would you do if it started raining ice cream sundaes?
67. When was the last time you gave someone a high-five?
68. What is one thing that you don’t know how to do, but you wish you did?
69. How would you feel if, for one day, you were the parent and your mom and dad were the kids?
70. Do you think that kids should be able to choose what they learn at school?

71. Do you prefer games with cards or dice?
72. Can you remember the silliest thing you’ve ever said?
73. Have you ever played an April Fool’s joke on anyone? How did they react?
74. What would you do if you accidentally dropped your ice cream cone on the ground?
75. Do you get more excited on your own birthday or on your best friend’s birthday?
76. If you could trade places with anyone for one day, who would it be?
77. Create a new cereal flavor.
78. Pick one fruit to combine with one vegetable to make a “fruitable”.
79. When you think about your day tomorrow, which part of it makes you the most excited?
80. Why is your favorite color your favorite?

81. Can you remember a time when you had a really good day?
82. Do you think it would be fun to be famous?
83. In your town, do you have more sunny days or more rainy days?
84. Do you like to visit the library?
85. Do you have a favorite word to say?
86. Do you think it would be fun to have a hippopotamus living in your house?
87. If someone gave you a blank piece of paper, what would you do with it?
88. If you design your own playground, what kinds of things would you want to play on?
89. If you could have a class pet, what would it be?
90. What is the quickest way to make someone smile?

91. How did you learn that your least favorite food was your least favorite food?
92. If someone wrote an article about you in your school’s newspaper, what would you want them to say?
93. What do you think would happen if you had to go to school on Saturdays?
94. When was the last time you told someone “Thank You”?
95. Have you ever taught anyone how to do something?
96. What is something that you think kids understand, but adults do not?
97. Do you like to get your face painted?
98. Describe what you see when you look outside your bedroom window at home.
99. Do you like how old you are now or do you wish you were older or younger?
100. If you were going to bury a time capsule, what would you put in it?
101. What is your favorite question to ask your friends?

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December 3, 2013July 21, 2020 • Counselors • Sofie Ehlinger

Host The Perfect Holiday Party

Open any glossy magazine cover this month and you’ll notice no shortage of party planning advice- Seven Simple Steps to a Perfect Holiday Party!, Party Planning on a Budget!, This Holiday’s Hottest Party Playlists!, Perfect Party Dresses! Oh my!

Today, we present to you party planning advice from a muddy-sneakered, wide-grinned, sun-soaked Rockbrook Girl.

If a summer camp camper or Rockbrook counselor were to take the lead on a holiday party advice article, here’s what she might say….

Dear Rockbrook Girl,
Let’s talk food. What should I serve? Hors D’oeuvres? Scallops wrapped in bacon? Artichoke dip? I need advice on menu planning.
Yours,
Munchies

Dear Munchies,

Keep things simple and fun! Old standbys like s’mores, GORP, puppy chow, and drippy ice cream cones are great. It’s always a good idea to roast your party food over an open fire- hotdogs, banana boats, tin-foil pancakes. Of course, milk and cookies are a huge hit!

Yours,
Rockbrook Girl

Dear Rockbrook Girl,
I’m looking for good conversations starters for my holiday party. Any suggestions?
Yours,
Chatty Kathy

Dear Chatty,

Great question! It’s a wonderful idea to ask your guests about themselves. It will make everyone at your party feel comfortable and supported. Make sure to listen actively and the conversation will get rolling in no time. Here are a few of my favorites:

Tell me about the last book you read?

I heard you can divide two three-digit numbers in your head! How do you do that?

What makes you laugh?

If you couldn’t watch television, how would you spend your time?

Do you have any pets?

Yours,
Rockbrook Girl

Dear Rockbrook Girl,
What should I wear at my party? I hear so much about holiday fashion these days, I just don’t know what’s trendy.
Yours,
Trendy Wendy

Dear Trendy,

Well, red and white are always in fashion! My advise is this, dress for function. Ensure that you are warm, cozy and comfortable while hosting for the holidays. Anything that you can jump, swim, roll, giggle, zoom, run, swing, stretch, and dance in is a must. It’s not at all about how you look, it’s all about how you feel!

Yours,
Rockbrook Girl

Dear Rockbrook Girl,
I’m wondering about presents. Should I ask my guests to bring gifts to my party?
Yours,
Wrapped Up

Dear Wrapped,

I love this question! By inviting guests to your party, you’ve automatically asked them to bring gifts to share with everyone! Each and every one of your guests has something beautiful to share with the world; they have their own unique set of talents and traits that are- are you ready?- GIFTS! At your party, instead of requesting that your guests offer up something synthetic just ask them to bring themselves- perfect and priceless.

Yours,
Rockbrook Girl

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November 21, 2013March 25, 2023 • News • Grace Wallace

All in the Family

A couple of months ago, a very exciting visitor came to camp. Like many others, this visitor had spent her childhood at Rockbrook as a camper, then as a counselor—unlike many others, however, her memories of Rockbrook also extend to holidays spent in the Carrier House, playing fetch with Nancy Carrier’s Great Danes, and playing games of croquet on “Aunt Nan’s lawn.”

Nancy Lesesne is the daughter of Nancy Carrier’s brother, and therefore knew the Rockbrook founder, and her husband, intimately. It was wonderful hearing stories of the Carriers away from camp—how “Aunt Nan’s” Great Danes liked to jump through the open downstairs windows to get outside (understandably scaring to death anyone standing near those windows); how the children were forbidden to disturb “Uncle Henry” when he withdrew to his study with his newspaper to manage his stocks; how Aunt Nan would frequently take the children to see her great-grandfather PT Barnum’s circus, when it came to town.

Mrs. Lesesne was particularly amused to find out that nowadays the Carrier House is widely believed by the campers to be haunted. She said that she could not recall anything particularly supernatural happening in the house when she would stay there, but allowed that it always did look a bit spooky.

Mrs. Lesesne had not been at Rockbrook since her days as a counselor, yet still she remembered her way around perfectly. Though today there are new buildings, new landscaping, and even a new family running the camp, she said it still felt the same— really good. More importantly, she commented that being at camp made her feel the same—that after all these years, coming to Rockbrook could still make her feel like an excited little girl coming home for the summer.

Carrier Niece in front of the Carrier House

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October 14, 2013May 29, 2020 • Campers • rbc

New Orleans Camp Girls

Yes, that’s what we’ve got at Rockbrook…!!! New Orleans camp girls!!! You might find it odd that girls from Louisiana would go to summer camp in North Carolina, but there’s a long tradition of exactly that, with generations of New Orleans and Baton Rouge children representing their cities at Rockbrook every summer.

And this is the time of year when we gather current NOLA girls (and alumnae!) for a Rockbrook party to celebrate the great time we had at camp last summer. Miriam and her sister Susan, who both attend Rockbrook’s 2nd session, hosted the party at their home in Carrollton. Chase and Grace brought plenty of photos and videos to present, and with a great crowd of both current campers and new girls interested in attending camp next summer, it was a really fun time. Thanks everyone for such a fantastic event!

These events are probably the best way to recharge your Rockbrook spirit, and if you’re new to camp, parents and children, to learn what makes Rockbrook so special.

We have more parties in other cities planned, so check the schedule to see if you can attend!

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September 29, 2013May 19, 2020 • News • Jeff Carter

Fall Gathering Redux

“[At the gathering] I was reminded that the Spirit of Rockbrook is ageless, timeless, and omnipresent. And while we may find ourselves having moments where we forget about it in the un-real world, it never forgets about us. It connects us all no matter what “school or name or fame” because at its core, the Rockbrook Spirit has the uncanny ability to gather and welcome hundreds of women (and the select irreplaceable male figures) with wide open arms whenever we feel like going home.”
—Michelle Batlle

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1. Simple Days

2. Muffins by Katie

3. Counselors Like This

4. Friendship Bracelets

5. Dolly’s Ice Cream

6. Friends Like These

7. The Songs

8. Moments Like This

9. The Rockbrook (Harlem) Shake

10. The Spirit of Rockbrook is Real

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