The weather today was amazing here in Freedom NH! It was warm (almost hot), gentle breeze and blue skies – the perfect kind of weather to launch the Camp Robin Hood Challenge Cup! This morning all of the groups in camp faced off against the groups above and below them in all kinds of activities. There were games of bombardment, gaga, volleyball, basketball, a backwards scavenger hunt, sandcastle-building, lip sync battles and more. This marked day one of the competition. The points will be tallied and at a later date in the summer we will start round 2 of the Challenge Cup. We can’t wait to see which group will prevail!!

After the Cup we surprised junior and middle camp groups with a trip to the Sanford Mainers Game. They are a college league baseball team that invites us to come see them play every year. The campers get to meet the players and talk with them. It is a beautiful night for a little baseball. Let’s hope we win!

Senior camp headed down to the waterfront for an afternoon beach party while the others were boarding the buses. They got to listen to music on the beach, swim and play in the water and just relax for a while.

After dinner the senior campers divided up – girls went to the waterfront and boys to the soccer field. The girls are currently doing sunset yoga and upon finishing will be making lavender and rice facemasks in the craft shack – a nice relaxing evening. The boys are playing Knockerball. It is a soccer game where you wear an inflatable bubble around your body and try to score a goal.  Please check out the pictures on the website – it is a bit hard to describe.

Hope you all had close to as much fun as we did today! Sweet Dreams from the Realm

Greetings from the Realm – it’s Gilban here!

What a beautiful day we had today in Freedom! I arrived late morning from NYC after closing out the school year and dismissing my students for a well-deserved summer. When I landed in Boston, the skies were gray and the air chillier than I’d anticipated, but the moment I stepped out of the car and onto camp grounds an hour later, the sun was shining, the air was warm, campers were happily up and about at activities, and I could hear music playing all around. Welcome home, I thought.

Despite many years as a camper at Robin Hood and after two years on staff, I felt nervous coming back and taking on an administrative role; I loved and cherished my time as both a camper and counselor, and I didn’t know what to expect for my experience at camp in a new position. After just a single day, my worries have faded. The beauty of Robin Hood is its traditions, comradery and inclusivity — all of which every person in camp, old or new, visibly takes part in. Throughout the day, I saw CITs holding younger campers on their backs, a previously homesick boy smiling and dancing in the dining hall, all of camp simultaneously belting out the chorus to “Shallow,” senior camp boys throwing frisbees on the quad, and middle camp girls listening to music as they made jewelry and created paintings… It is absolutely awesome being able to watch kids be kids, and I’m so grateful I get to be here to continue to be a part of this unique, incredible, welcoming family.

Even now as I’m writing this note, I can see campers running with smiles to their evening activities, I hear songs being sung from girls camp, laughs from the soccer field, and counselors making announcements to their campers over the loudspeaker: “Shires! The Hunger Games have begun! Head to the Cornicopia!!!” I can’t wait for many more days just like this one.

Sweet Dreams from The Realm
Julia Gilban-Cohen

It’s getting to feel like home up here at The Realm after 5 incredible days. Today was definitely one for the record books! At breakfast, I announced a surprise Forester/Shire/Saxon/Scribe trip to Ogunquit Beach leaving just after the meal. My thoughts in the off season were to make these last years as campers feel more special, and to enhance the CIT experience. Following a drum roll, the dining hall went nuts as I called off the names of the groups going on the trip. Shortly after getting the camp hyped up, I announced another trip – that the Squires and Jesters were leaving to climb their own mountains right after bunk clean up. At this point, the dining hall was full of oos’s and ah’s and loud cheers. I remember sitting in the old dining hall as a juggler in 1973 waiting and hoping my groups name would be called by Andy Friedman, our camps founder. This is a great tradition here at CRH and I am beyond thrilled that it lives on to this day. Although the world has changed tremendously since then we still feel the same way as kids and it really shows.. Take away the screens and the homework and we all go right back to the same place in the trees.

The sun was out all day and with 6 groups out, everyone else took advantage of the open fields.  It’s truly amazing that after only 5 days of being all together, it feels so different with some of our brothers and sisters out for the day. We really are one big family……

We started our private in-camp lessons and held a special tennis clinic for campers looking to try out for teams back home, after the camp season ends. Our 13U girls basketball team is practicing hard for their opener next week as well as our 15 and 13U boys teams. The 14U girls volleyball team looks unbeatable and we are thrilled! Sign ups are also well under way for Saturday night’s big Junior Camp Talent Show performance, which we are looking forward to! We are running at full tilt here at the Realm and could not be more thrilled. Walking the bunks lines tonight was [as always] my personal highlight. Hearing everyone laugh, recapping their favorite parts of the day and saying goodnight makes the 10 long months of alone time worth it.

Thank you as alway for sharing your kids with me and The Realm. Cannot wait for tomorrow’s BIG day.

Sweet Dreams from The Realm

Woody

What a day here at the REALM……. The sun was shining down on us all day which allowed every group to get into the water and enjoy everything that Lake Ossipee has to offer.  I wish you could walk around camp and see what I see.  It is incredible to watch and feel the energy that flows at camp from 8:00 am till 9:00 pm every day. We are all now members of the CRH family. After 2 full days, our 17 groups are now all individual families. Seeing the new campers who just 2 days ago came out of vans/ cars/ buses slightly overwhelmed now run around smiling from ear to ear warms my heart.

We ended tonight with our traditional staff show. I challenged your kids to watch us make fools of ourselves on stage.  I reminded them camp is about stepping out of your comfort zone. I told them how lucky they are to experience things here at camp that they could never do at home.

My personal highlight was bringing our 17 group leaders – your children’s fill-in parents here for the summer on stage for an encore bow. They are all ex-campers who have spent up to 16 summers here at camp. I pointed to the SCOUT’s and TPJ’s seated in the first row and promised to be on this same stage with them in 12 years when they are running the Realm. It is our secret sauce in so many ways.  These ex-campers love and have so much passion for all things CRH.  I am so lucky to have them here making sure the traditions and values that make Robin Hood so special are passed down from generation to generation.

I am the 5th director to run CRH in the last 92 years.  It is a pretty good bet that the next one might have been sitting in our audience tonight …….

Sweet dreams from the Realm

Woody