December Update: Goodbye Year of the Snake, Howdy to the Year of the Horse

by Ariella Rogge on December 15

As we move toward the end of 2025, it is important to reflect on the past year and recognize our challenges and embrace our triumphs. According to legend, the Jade Emperor invited the animals to a celestial race to help determine their order in the Zodiac. Horse was poised for a 6th place finish when the clever (and a bit sneaky) Snake jumped out at the finish line (he had hidden himself in Horse’s hoof), startling Horse, and taking 6th. 6th and 7th place…we won’t go there…

With Snake’s skin shedding abilities an uncanny intelligence to sense the world around him, it is fitting that we are on the threshold of a new year after such a transformational growth year at camp.

The Sanborn Western Camps team welcomed Quin Smith, our new, year-round Trips Program Director, in January. We were able to see many of our Midwest campers, staff, camp families and alums during our TWO 2025 Road Show tours (one early winter and one this fall). We had a ribbon cutting for the brand-new treehouse. We had strong seasonal staff teams at both High Trails and Big Spring and are looking forward to seeing many of our best staff returning for 2026. We built a brand new, energy-efficient washhouse at Big Spring. We had good spring snow and just enough summer rain to keep the campfires burning for most of the summer. We published Sanborn Sweets, the brainchild of our beloved Bernie the Baker. Our campers hiked and rode countless miles and overcame obstacles that built resilience and demonstrated character and grit. And many of our staff members and an incredible amount of camp parents took time to share their thoughts and feedback with our facility master plan partner: Immersive1st.

And here is the MOST exciting thing about the Year of the Snake…it is all about transformation. According to the Chinese Zodiac, we should have used this year to shed bad energy and tired ideas and to embrace change and new beginnings. This is exactly what Sanborn Western Camps in Colorado has been doing to ensure we are the best summer camp in Colorado!

In early November we had a preview of the feedback from the Immersive1st survey data and it was SO exciting because it echoed the very same “hiccups, headaches & huzzahs” that we had articulated coming off of Summer 2025. From improving health center communication to providing our staff and campers with more time to “be” to continuing to find ways to articulate the value of the sleepaway summer camp experience, we have been changing interview questions, tweaking trips, analyzing the efficacy of our training sessions and chatting with families and staff from across the country about how to keep Sanborn Western Camps’ program, facilities, staff, mission and vision fresh, relevant and important for all of our stakeholders.

With almost 80 years of history, and as part of a very large, complex and dynamic non-profit organization, this is not a task for the meek. This endeavor requires energy, leadership, new ideas, fortitude and–most likely–a little bit of good luck. Fortunately, all of these traits are EXACTLY what are embodied in and symbolized by the upcoming 2026 Year of the Horse.

We are so grateful to and for our Sanborn Western Camps community and we are always looking for ways to connect even more individuals to their sense of self, community, earth and wonder through fun and adventure…so, if you haven’t already, please consider giving the gift of camp this year. Since we have so many horses around here already, it might bring you some good luck!

Happy Holidays!

Back to Blog
Tags
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 sons, Lairden and Karsten.