Weekly Update: June 23rd, 2024

by Ariella Rogge on June 24

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Everyone has personal mantras that seep into our work lives, parenting lives, and daily lives in a variety of ways. Some speak to painfully funny truths, “If you put it off til the last minute, it only takes a minute,” to anticipatory hope (or admonishment) “Be a problem solver, not a problem maker,” to spins on the reality of camp, “It’s a spill a minute.” One that we all love, and embrace completely, comes from the oft-maligned film, “Joe vs. the Volcano” and it is this:

“My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.” -Patricia-

Constant total amazement. That was what this week was for all of us.

We had an incredible second week at camp: rock climbing, backpacking, horseback riding, canoeing, paddleboarding, climbing 14,000 foot mountains, singing at vespers, playing by streams, mountain biking and bike packing, building trails, eating ice cream, laughing with friends, floating and rafting down rivers, raising money for our scholarship fund, scrambling up rocks and sliding down sand dunes, watching incredible sunsets and sunrises, playing cards in tents, sleeping under the stars, hiking through snowfields and being constantly amazed at the incredible places we visit, the skills we learn and the people we have the opportunity to get to know along the way.

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We also had the rare opportunity to see much of this through the (literal) lens of a camera. Beau Larson, of Two One Eight Media House, spent much of the week capturing footage for a new series of Sanborn promotional videos–and ended up making a lot of friends as well. Campers at High Trails chanted for him to “tell a story” and “slow walk the lodge” while Big Spring campers were excited to learn about his drone. We can’t wait to share the videos (and many of the incredible camper testimonials he received) later in the year.

Tonight at each camp’s community vespers, we marveled at the rapid passing of time. Our first session Sanborn Juniors left this morning, leaving tables empty at lunch and quite a few sad counselors at both camps. We had such a great time with our first session of Sanborn Junior campers! Between record high water for our river trips, more Uno games than we can count, so much excitement for the horses (and, really, baby goats), fantastic fossil dig finds and really great weather throughout the session, we couldn’t not have asked for a better first two weeks. We miss them already!

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Starting tomorrow and Tuesday, all of the campers at High Trails will venture out and participate in a 3, 4 or 5 day trip in the Colorado high country. Some will ride horses, some will create, some will hike, but all will have an incredible time and will come home with more stories, growth and a sense of pride than we can imagine. Big Spring campers will participate in more all-day and overnight trips, including more mountains, river adventures, canoe trips and so so SO much more.

Just like the start of last week, there are a few nerves and excited energy bumping around camp in anticipation of the challenging, progressive trips ahead. Sometimes making choices and decisions about what to bring and what not to bring, how to make sure they have everything on the packing list, how to pack and where to locate-their-waterbottle-they-just-had-ten-minutes-ago can make campers feel uncomfortable. Many campers enjoy having a mantra (“I can do anything for a minute”) or a song or an inside joke or a copy of the map or a group riddle or a trail game they can play or repeat over and over to help get them over the moments when they feel “uncomfortable but not unsafe.” Yet with the support of staff, the belief you have in them, and their desire to make the most of each and every day, the hardest decision they will find themselves making at camp (and in many positive spaces moving forward) will be “a decision between two rights.” This week will also hold physical, mental and emotional challenges–so another mantra we like to share comes from one of our mothers who says, “Don’t worry until it’s time to worry.”

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This phrase is helpful because it puts things in perspective and makes us realize one of the only things we worry about is missing out on something great going on at camp–and, because we are “alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic!” every day of the summer, we will continue to live in constant amazement.

Enjoy your week!

Ariella, Krista & Oliver

Directors, Sanborn Western Camps

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Ariella Rogge
About Ariella Rogge

Ariella started her career at Sanborn when she was twelve. After five years of camper and five years of Sanborn staff experience, she continued her work with kids in the high school classroom. Ariella and her family returned to Sanborn in 2001 to take on the Program Director role which she held til 2012. She and Elizabeth Marable became co-directors of High Trails in 2013 and then Ariella became the High Trails Director in 2020. In the fall of 2022 she became the Director of Sanborn Western Camps, overseeing the director teams of both Big Spring and High Trails. She lists mountain golf, Gymkhana, climbing mountains and making Pad Thai in the backcountry as some of her favorite activities at camp. Ariella received a B.A. in English from Colorado College and is a certified secondary English educator,an ACCT Level 2 Ropes Course Technician, an ARC lifeguard and NREMT and WEMT. She lives in Florissant in the summer and in Green Mountain Falls during the school year so she can stay involved with the busy lives of her husband, Matt, and two teenage sons, Lairden and Karsten.