Programs

The truth is I would not have become the person I am today without RRR! Making decisions for classes at 7 years old (with the help of a big sister and Rue as my counselor), remembering to wear your bathing suit under your jeans so you could go from the barn to the pool without the dreaded trip back to your cabin, remembering not to sign up for your pool class right before horseback … I could go on and on. The mistakes we made there were safe and there was a support system to catch you if you fell. Later I enjoyed working with the campers younger than me. First in WE as a big sister myself and later as a CIT Mom. In 14 years I grew and strengthened my commitment to myself. I felt loved unconditionally and I formed everlasting friendships. Some of them recently re-kindled after a 15-20 year gap as if no time had passed at all. In the last year I received a letter from a former CIT that spoke of my influence on her life. How it made her a better mother and a better woman. I have saved that letter for my children to read one day. I will always feel like Skeet and Sandy helped raise me and they always saw the person I could be! I can never thank them enough for that.

Attending RRR is a tradition in my family — aunts, cousins, sisters, and best friends all have great memories that we still talk about today. I am waiting for the summer that my daughter is old enough to attend and experience the same wonderful times that I had. My memories of summers at RRR are so special to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Skeet and Sandy, and all of the staff from every session, for the ten years of summertime bliss!

Another favorite camp memory that lives on is the camp songs. I have sung them to my kids when they were babies … and still sing to them to wake them up in the morning ("Good morning to You!"). Last summer my daughter went to camp for the first time (at age 6). She had a great time and is looking forward to going again this summer. She sings camp songs almost daily (I'm ready for her to learn a few new ones other than "Boom Boom, Ain't it Great to be Crazy?" and "I Wish I Were a Little Bar of Soap")!

Picture a Spot … My years at Rocky River mean more to me than can be written down in a little note. There's probably not a day that goes by that I don't think about an experience, a laugh, a friendship, a struggle, a success, etc. that I experienced at camp. I love that I can go back and find the same "safe haven" that I experienced as a 7-year-old girl in Circle B through several years as a Counselor! Driving across that cattle guard at the front gate, my heart beat calms to a familiar and comforting beat again, like nothing else I've experienced.

I loved my counselors, I loved the river, and even learned how to sail on Canyon Lake. I still sing all the old camp songs that we sang every day after lunch to my little girl, who's five, every night before bed. I always end with, 'I love the mountains, I love the rolling hills ...' and then Taps.

I would definitely not be the person I am today without the experience of camp. I remember being 7 years old and so excited about my first camp experience. I don't think I slept the entire night before leaving. When I arrived at camp it was the most wonderful place I had ever seen. Rue was my first counselor and she took the time to show me around and introduced me to the other girls. I was scared at first, but it did not last long. By the end of the first night camp already felt like a second home. By the end of my first two weeks I did not want to leave. Rocky River was a part of my life forever. In the end what I took away from camp was friendship, love, respect and confidence.