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Camp and Camp Life

Camp and camp life represent unique and important benefits for children. They foster personal growth, encourage new friendships, promote greater confidence and self-esteem, and are perfect complements to ordinary classroom education. Camp means joining an enthusiastic community of great people each working and playing together in a supportive, non-competitive setting. Children love camp because it allows them to relax and be themselves. It lets them make independent decisions and try new activities. Camp provides a daily opportunity for self-directed play guided by excellent counselors and role models. At its core, Rockbrook Camp is fun!

Shared Enthusiasm for Camp

August 25, 2010

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Summer Camp kids having fun outside

We wanted to pass along just a sample of the feedback we have been receiving through the end-of-camp survey recently sent out to parents. So many wonderful comments, happy campers and thrilled parents, it’s enough to make all of us at camp blush! But also, it means a lot to know that the deep feelings we have for Rockbrook are shared with so many of our camp families. We can hear the appreciation and enthusiasm in your voices! Here’s one parent’s comments.

I would sacrifice just about anything to allow Emma to attend Rockbrook every year, and RBC is not an insignificant expense for us. I love so many things about Rockbrook: the activities that are only available to my daughter at camp, the confidence that she is developing over the years as she participates in different activities that push her comfort level, and the camp friendships that she is building from year to year. I truly believe that Rockbrook Camp is helping shape my daughter into a stronger, more confident person. I am so glad that we found it!

Wow, thanks so much!

Camp as Community

July 23, 2010

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Girls Camp Community Togetherness

Spending time at Rockbrook, it becomes clear just how strong the sense of community is for the girls at camp. It’s remarkable really how quickly and easily girls from so many different home towns and different schools can grow so close and care about each other in personal and meaningful ways. After this most recent long session, and probably because these girls have spent 4 weeks together, it was even more apparent that camp is a community in the best sense of the word.

It begins with a group of well-trained, caring adult role models who exhibit the kind of personal character that fosters community. From the directors to the cabin counselors and staff members, we know the importance of compassion, generosity, contribution and patient understanding. Quite naturally, but also intentionally, we set the tone at camp so everyone can feel loved, capable and included. Through encouragement and enthusiasm, the leaders at camp nurture positive relationships.

And the results? Well, the benefits of camp are clear. Kids feel good about themselves (improved self-esteem, self-worth, and self-confidence), are better communicators (both expressing themselves and listening to others), and are more aware and responsible. Becoming a member of this kind of community is the secret here. It has a powerful, wonderful effect on the girls at Rockbrook. Sure, the activities, special events, the food, and the sheer fun of it all go into it, but a girl knowing wholeheartedly she is a member of the camp community, knowing Rockbrook is “my camp,” helps explain why she loves it so much.  Pretty cool.

Camp Life and Soulcraft

June 24, 2010

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Making ceramics by hand at summer camp

I just finished reading Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford, and it struck me that he would probably be a big fan of camp. The book is an argument for working with your hands, for engaging the material world as opposed to the more abstract constructions of modern life (think TV, all forms of digital entertainment, even the work of most “white collar” jobs). The ordinary lives of most Americans, including our kids, are too often divorced from the joys of working with real things and with real people, and as a result our relationships suffer and we find ourselves dissatisfied. Crawford suggests working with our hands, enhancing our “manual competence,” can serve as an effective antidote to this modern affliction.

You’ve probably heard of “Nature Deficit Disorder,” a concept fashioned by Richard Louv describing the negative consequences of children spending too little time in the outdoors. Here we have a similar notion linking negative effects to living a life abstracted from the sensuous, physical nature of the real world. And just as it’s a response to Nature Deficit Disorder, summer camp provides children a wide range of opportunities to work with their hands, to make things and explore the real world (including the people around them!). Every day of life at camp challenges kids to do things with their hands, to actively engage the material world, whether it be building a clay mug, learning a flip off the diving board, or dressing up like an old lady to play bingo with your friends and laughing your head off.

Crawford doesn’t talk much in his book about children, and not at all about summer camp, but if you know anything about camp life, you can easily see how it also serves children well in their development of “manual competence.” Kids love camp, and they’ll tell you that it’s because it’s simply “a lot of fun,” but maybe a large part of that can also be traced to their need to connect to the physical world. After all, camp is exactly that.

Sunday at Rockbrook Camp

June 20, 2010

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Sundays are a different kind of day at Rockbrook. Everyone sleeps in and comes to breakfast in their pajamas! Afterward, everyone goes back to their cabin to change into their “whities,” or camp uniform, for flag raising and Chapel. Campers and counselors congregate on the hill in a U-shape around the flagpole and silently watch the Hi-Ups (the oldest campers) raise the flag.

After saying the pledge and singing “O, Beautiful,” everyone makes their way to Chapel. Today’s theme was sharing and was led by the Middlers and Juniors. Campers and counselors worked together to come up with songs, poems and visual contributions around that theme during the week. Camp director Sarah Carter closed the chapel service with one of her ever popular readings. This week it was Stone Soup by Marcia Brown.

Walking the path of silence to Chapel

Sunday afternoon is a very special time at camp when we do a camp-wide event. Campers spent much of their free time throughout the week preparing for the afternoon event “Miss RBC” which is a very silly interpretation of a beauty pageant. Campers compete for the title as a cabin group. Junior 6 took the title with their hit new song “All the Dogs in the Park!”

The top finishers in Miss RBC

Relaxation describes the rest of Sunday at Rockbrook. Campers wrapped up the evening with movie night where they all piled in the gym to enjoy some entertainment before Goodnight Circle and milk and cookies.

As we enter the final week of 1st session, we cannot believe it is almost over. This week we are looking forward to all of the closing events of banquet, the play and spirit fire. So many memories have been shared in the past few weeks, and we know the next few days will bring many many more!

Counting Down to Camp

May 24, 2010

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Camps Summer Girls

Have you noticed the camp countdown lately? It’s clicking right along and is now showing only 12 days left until the first session of camp opens for the summer. Only 12 days! That’s very exciting because it means at last the staff and cabin counselors will be arriving, and everything at camp will be set for another great summer at Rockbrook. We look forward to this all year long, so it’s great to have it just around the corner.

Better start packing! There are only 12 more days!!! 🙂

Camp Milk and Cookies

May 6, 2010

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Summer Camp Treats Cookies

More Cookies!

At camp, there are cookies every night! It’s a long standing tradition at Rockbrook for all the campers (and counselors 🙂 ) to have a cookie and small cup of milk at the end of the day. Everyday the kitchen crew makes a batch of homemade cookies— chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, cinnamon nut, peanut butter, or maybe sugar cookies. Which kind is a daily surprise. When the evening program is finished, a couple of staff members from each line grabs their bag of cookies and jug of milk from the kitchen and sets it all out for the girls.

It may seem a little strange to have cookies right before bed, but it makes a nice little snack to get you through the night. Don’t forget to brush your teeth before hitting the hay. Maybe read a little in bed, and the next thing you know you’ll be waking up to the morning bell. Ahhh camp..

More Benefits of Youth Camp

March 24, 2010

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Camp Benefits Girls

I spotted an article discussing how parents can understand why residential summer camps are worth their cost. It’s true; sleepaway camps are usually expensive and can cost between $1000 and $2000 per week. And while it’s also true every summer activity (e.g., other educational opportunities, extracurricular activities, family vacations, trips, and entertainment) costs something significant, what are the unique benefits of an overnight camp experience that can justify its price?

First of all, the American Camp Association has a lot to say about the benefits for youth of attending summer camp. We have written about it before here and here, but you should visit the ACA Web site to see what they say.

One clear, obvious benefit to camp is the fun and concrete skills kids gain from the wide range of camp activities available.  By trying everything at camp, girls learn how to be an archer, a swimmer, a knitter, a tennis player, an actor, and a horseback rider, to name just a few.  They learn to do things, exciting new things that can easily turn into life-long pursuits.

Perhaps more importantly, a quality camp experience provides kids intangible benefits as well. Here’s how one camp director in the article put it.

“Besides all the exciting activities and friendships made, the immense value in camp comes in the development of key lifetime skills and attributes such as confidence, cooperation, communication, new skills and decision-making, to name a few. Camp goes beyond a summer session. It’s unique in that it really is about each camper developing their best self for life… In that regard it is priceless.”

More than other summer activities, a sleep away summer camp experience endows children with valuable life skills, provides positive adult role models, supports them with consistent encouragement, and all within the kind of well-rounded wholesome environment all too rarely found these days. These are lasting benefits that can really make a difference in a child’s life as she becomes an adult.  It’s pretty clear; with that kind of benefit, camp is definitely worth it.

SC Camps in the Mountains

March 10, 2010

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South Carolina Summer Camp Girls

Looking over the listing of girls attending Rockbrook, this summer and in the past, it’s interesting to see how many campers are from South Carolina. It’s not too surprising if you realize a couple of things about RBC.

First of all, camp is located only about 8 miles from the South Carolina border. You have to go up the mountain to get here, but you can drive to Rockbrook in less than 6 hours from just about anywhere in South Carolina. Here’s a map showing camp’s location.

There is also a long tradition of Rockbrook directors being from South Carolina. For example, our former director “Jerky” (Ellen Hume Jervey) was a native of Charleston, SC.  Later, the Stevensons and the Whittles where also from SC.

Another thing to appreciate is that before air conditioning was common in the south, heading to the mountains was the best way to cool down in the summers.  South Carolina summer camps would even establish outposts in the “upstate” for this reason.  It’s hard to beat the mountains in the summer!  If you’re from Columbia or Charleston, you know what I mean.