©Nicole Marie Fuller

©Nicole Marie Fuller

Ellie smiles for the camera

Abby paints her perewinkles for the "snail collection" exercise

Caleb makes a sunprint (a camera-less photograph)

Thalia collects Perewinkles

The teams fly thier ROVs!

Let us tell you the tale of a small little colony right “off the coast” of the Darling Marine Center; the RockWeed Colony. It is led and taken care of by the good King Alex, its Socialite Thalia and her brother Caleb, the Passage Master Abby, the Hard Working Harrison and Sam brothers, and its Trade Merchant Ellie.

It came to be at 3pm and the sun was beating down. No kid in their right mind would turn down swimming, in fact, some asked for it. So we had finished our labs, completed our chores and got the kids in their bathing suits. This was all before Alex became King, before Thalia found her fortune, Ellie was still a little girl with a bright smile and a small cove at the Darling Marine Center was still just an unsuspecting pile of rocks.

Matt and I shuffled the kids carefully down to the shore and sat back quietly against the rocks where we could see all 7 of our campers without infringing on whatever came spilling from their minds. We were chatting about schedules and other completely boring “adult things” while rocks were being claimed left and right by whatever camper happened to be standing on them at the moment. Sam was kind and gracious to offer his hospitality to any and all willing to visit his rocks.

Next thing we know, rockweed (ascophyllum nodosum) is being heaped up on the tallest rock to our oldest camper, Alex, standing proudly, directing and assigning value to the bycatch of wood, styrofoam and shells; all of which can be used as currency. He praised good finds and of course, they were all good finds. He was a great leader and kept up the enthusiasm beautifully. All of his citizens were so very clearly enjoying themselves and appreciated his guidance. Harrison and his apprentice little brother, Sam were hard at work collecting the colony’s major economic staple. They were focused and good at their job, pulling in mounds of rockweed to add major stock to their stores. These kids were rich in every sense of the word. Caleb had perched himself on the farthest rock out, almost as if he were guarding his shoreline. He quietly slipped into the water when he wanted and climbed back up to his perch when he felt ready, a true free spirit.

Our little Ellie had been writing her blog that we hope you enjoy up in our conference center and wasn’t aware of the game until she called down to us from the top of the rocks. I suggested Abby help her down to their new found home; Abby quickly became the Passage Master and successfully guided Ellie down to their operation. Abby was very serious about getting her fellow camper down safely and effeciently, the counselors very much appreciated it. Ellie soon fit right into a role of Trade Merchant, passing rockweed from people to people and running her own mini business. From the middle of the counselor conversation we hear King Alex:

“Gold from Heaven!”

Not but two seconds later Thalia comes scampering to us with a Horshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) molt. She explained to us excitedly that Alex had deemed this shell one of the most valuable things to find and she was now the richest inhabitant of the RockWeed Colony and could buy whatever she pleased. She was more happy to keep this treasure than trade it in for anything else.

When it came time to pack up and leave their hard work, Miss Thalia helped Alex lead the whole colony back to the classroom where beach towels became the most fashionable draped dresses and hair was done up beautifully. Harrison and I mused about being older siblings (I have a younger brother myself) and the importance of being a good role model and a teacher for someone so close to you as Sam followed and has followed his big brother very closely throughout the past two days. We sent home completely new people from the children we got this morning, at least I hope so.

I’d like to say that we had something to do with this beauty but we just had the honor of watching. What can happen if us adults just hush for a little bit is truly astonishing. These campers are just like all of the other campers we’ve had over the summer: brilliant and unashamed to play as they see fit; to become whoever they wish to be and express their creativity and intelligence just however they please. I understand now, more than I have before, how important playing is to a human’s development and sometimes I think we forget it. I’m so glad and honored that I can be a camp counselor and provide the space for growing minds and I’m sure Nicole and Matt agree wholeheartedly. I’m sure next week all of these brilliant kids will move on from this game and on to other ones but I’m sure this will surely stay with me for a long LONG time.

Thank you for your time and for sharing your children with us. We are honored to share our experiences and knowledge with them.

Everyone had an experiment to do and they were all different. Mine was called Phosphate.

What I did was I got some water from the lake and I had to fill it up to the 10ml mark.

Then the next step was to put a test tab in it.

Then the next step is to shake it and see what color it was and compare it to the color chart and see what color it looks like.

Mine was dark green.

I am having lots of fun at camp.

from, Abby

Campers put their names on their journals

Campers team up to make their own ROVs!

Ellie and Harrison made a great team

Abby concentrates on her water experiment at the Damariscotta Lake

Buzz demonstrates putting on the Immersion Suit and beats his own record!

Ellie in her Immersion Suit