Full Camp Video

Transcript – Camp Video

A Rockbrook girl is funny, she’s silly, she’s happy. She doesn’t care what other people might think of her. A Rockbrook girl is never afraid to have fun, no matter what the situation.

I love the people here at Rockbrook. They’re so energetic and just so fun-loving, and they’re just so welcoming. I mean, even in my first year, I felt like I’ve been here for four years.

The energy here just is lifted. Like, and everything’s happening here and like, you’re coming into a different world, almost.

I really love the way that all the kids here are so friendly and also, you get to try so many activities that you’d never ordinarily get to try.

One of the biggest things about camp is that you leave and you’re just so much more sure of yourself. It’s a place to grow. Here, you’re encouraged to kind of step out and you’re encouraged to show your personality and show what makes you special.

You get to just completely be yourself, 100%.

How to Find a Place to be Yourself

Since 1921, Rockbrook has been a Haven in the wilderness for girls everywhere.

Rockbrook gets girls outside. It’s a place of encouragement and growth. But most importantly, it’s a place where girls relax and be themselves and make true friendships.

And you’re gonna get this sense of community that you can’t find anywhere else. So much support everywhere within the staff and the campers, and all together.

It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, or your background. My pen pal from my first year is my best friend to this day. It’s just super cool to have that friendship that I’ve had for nine years.

Now, there’s like, people from all over the world. Like, someone in my cabin is from Italy. One of our counselors is also from Mexico, so it’s really cool.

Like, you don’t know anyone and then in one day, I knew everyone. So like, that’s why I think camp friends are like sisters.

How to Laugh All Day Long

The campers sign up for new activities every three days and over the course of their session, they can sample nearly all the activities offered here.

The amount of choices that we get to make every day that we wouldn’t be able to make at home, it’s just astounding.

If they wanna take, you know, pottery every single rotation, they can. If they don’t wanna take an activity ’cause it’s not their favorite, they don’t have to. There are so many trips and things that, you know, “Oh, I wanna climb Lookinglass,” I can go do that. “I want to go whitewater rafting.” It’s not someone making choices for you. Girls are kind of encouraged to take new chances to make their own choices with things where they have a large say in how their daily life goes. The end result, I would say is like, very much a gained sense of independence.

They really don’t feel any pressure. If they don’t make it to the top of the Alpine Tower in climbing, or if they don’t make the perfect pot in pottery, there’s no harm in that. You can always try again. So if they didn’t have the courage in the first few days to go climbing, then maybe by the end, they can build up to things like that and really grow.

There’s so many small moments at camp that we don’t even realize happen, but you learn from it each time it happens.

And you just have to encourage the young girls to take a little bit of a risk. It’s just you getting used to something and learning to, “Okay, if I did bad this time,” picking yourself back up.

How to Befriend a Special Horse

Rockbrook Camp is very much about building confidence in young girls. It’s a great confidence builder for a young girl, to be able to know that they can control a 1200-pound animal.

It gives me a chance to become better at riding because I try different horses and I’m trying new things on different horses. They also talk to you about what you want to do.

We’re very apt, as far as with our skill development, to really focus on what they want to work on and create goals with them at the beginning of the session, and really try to understand what they want to do while they’re at camp. We’re gonna find that horse, we’re gonna find that special horse that you can bond with, that you feel safe and comfortable on, that you can have a blast with.

We offer different levels of every rider from beginners to advanced, to girls who just wanna ride for fun, to girls who really, really wanna develop their skills and thinking about being a competitive rider. It’s also a great place to create relationships. Creating a relationship, whether it’s with our two-legged instructors or our four-legged instructors, it’s a really great place for the girls to really come and feel loved and to really build those character skills that’s important as a young girl.

I think it’s personally amazing.

How to Climb a Real Rock

I love the outdoor adventure trips.

We have the Alpine Tower which is like, a log system that you climb up. We also do special trips up to Castle Rock, which is a rock on camp, here.

Those girls who want to progress even further, we offer climbs in the Pisgah National Forest where each climb is a puzzle and each person, according to their physical makeup, has to determine how they’re gonna climb that climb. And so it really gets to be a mental activity as much as it is physical.

We really focus on having the kids who have the skills, teach the others and encourage the others, and through that, build friendships while they’re on the river and build partnerships for getting through the challenges that we face out there.

I had never done whitewater kayaking before I came to camp and now we’re some of the best kayakers at camp.

I’m very proud of myself getting this far and being so comfortable in the class three rapids.

How to Cover Yourself in Shaving Cream

Rockbrook surprises are the best things. There’s a surprise every day at camp…

The girls never know what’s coming, they always guess. And you hear little rumors throughout camp like, the dance is gonna be this weekend or Dollie Trolley’s coming this weekend. It’s always fun to just kind of splash that on them. They don’t know what to expect.

The best thing about camp is you could wear anything you want, and you can make any costume that you’re wearing fit with any theme.

If you wanna wear pants on your head to breakfast, or you wanna wear a tutu to lunch, you do it.

And I think that’s what makes camp so great. Wearing costumes every day, like, not caring what you look like coming back from the shaving cream fight and maybe not showering. It’s like, completely fun because you’re just being your honest, true, raw self.

It’s those kind of wacky moments that really leave such a huge impact, I feel like, on these campers.

They realize like, how freeing the feeling is when all you’re doing is laughing, no matter what you’re doing or where you are.

I never stop laughing here. It’s true, like putting a smile on your face makes your day 110% better.

That’s part of being a Rockbrook girl is being able to let that part of you show, have fun, learn to laugh at yourself. I think it’s just, it’s just kinda like that camp magic.

How to be a Rockbrook Girl

The last night of camp is a spirit fire, which is a long tradition at Rockbrook. Girls reflect on all that they’ve accomplished and all that they’ve experienced during their session. Through their time at Rockbrook, we hope that our campers have gained a greater sense of self and feel more connected with the natural world and each other.

Pretty much everything about Rockbrook is amazing. It’s just a big, happy place for everyone to enjoy themselves and discover themselves.

And the counselors, they’re so happy and positive and nice, that you always feel warm.

Life at Rockbrook is almost like a dream. You have this beautiful setting. You have these amazing people with their own personality, not a personality that they fake when they’re at school and at home. It’s their true personality.

They’re going to remember the special events, but it’s those little moments, maybe, in their cabin with their cabin mates that they may not expect to have as big of an impact that can always be fun.

These people are my best friends. I’ve never had any other friends as genuine and as there for me, counselors and camper friends, alike.

It’s immediate friendships. I mean, you were strangers yesterday and now it’s opening day and now you’re bunk mates and the very best friends.

There’s just kind of charm here. I think it’s a mixture of the location and definitely the people. I think the people make the difference.