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Robin Hood Camp

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A Robin Hood Camp brochure from 1938.

From the early 1920's to the mid-1970's, the Robin Hood Camp, located at Upper Twin Lake in Central Valley, NY, offered city girls an opportunity to experience a variety of outdoor activities and enjoy nature. It was for white girls only until the 1943 decision to integrate all Brooklyn YWCA activities.

Former campers shared these memories online:

2006: I went to RHC in 1963 and 1964 and it was a place that I loved and cherished. I had a terrible fear of water and it was a place I learned to swim, share and storytelling. During my first stint at RHC my counselor bonded with me and helped me to feel loved and wanted. I am hoping there is some way I may be able to locate Okonoko and thank her for helping me to feel special.

2009: I don't know what made me Google "Robin Hood Camp" after all these years, but going to camp was the best time of my life (and I've had a great life).

I started going when I was 7, in 1957, and attended for 7 consecutive summers. Being there introduced me to a love of nature and simplicity, a love and understanding of all kinds of people and a peace that I had never known in my life in the suburbs of NYC. Because of Robin I have a profound love of being in the woods and live in a house that we built on 2 acres of woods, with a view of trees from every window. I think, in some way, when I am surrounded by trees I am actually there. I am 59 and I am still there. 

Second only to the birth of my first child, the thoughts surrounding Camp are the ones I go to when I need a happy place.

My sister and I did go back in the mid-70's and Robin Hood was not operating, but we were able to walk around and it was wonderful, mostly the same. And the visuals gave me the feelings of being there so long ago...and it was wonderful.