S = Sportsmanship
Our camp mission is to teach children the skills of making and keeping friends while building their self-esteem, self-confidence and resilience. Our STARFISH program plays an integral part in achieving this mission. You never know when a wonderfully teachable moment in the camp day occurs and a staff person seizes the opportunity to teach a life-skill. It happens throughout the summer, many times during the camp day.
When we notice that a camper has demonstrated one of our STARFISH traits, recognition is given in many ways too. Division Leaders announce recipients at division lineups, campers’ names are posted on our Summer Wall of Fame, campers are given Starfish raffles, which are drawn for prizes at our full-camp Friday afternoon assemblies.
Each week, Division Leaders, along with the campers of each group, are involved in an activity specifically designed to foster one or more of the character traits of STARFISH.
This week is – S – SPORTSMANSHIP
At NSDC we encourage campers to exhibit appropriate conduct in healthy competition – emphasis is on the victory of one’s own side, not on one’s opponent’s defeat. We have developed a “Code of Good Sportsmanship”
- Play fair and for fun
- Be gracious in victory and defeat
- Success is trying your best
- Encourage and support your teammates
- Compete with class, courtesy and respect
We focus on more than just winning the game. We remind coaches, counselors and campers that how we play sports and how we react to successes and disappointments, in our own performance and the performance of others, are good indications of how we will react to the competition, disappointments, and successes of life in general.
We are off to a great start here at camp seeing wondrful signs of good “sportsmanship” from all of our campers already – Check out our video of Opening Week and how the first week of activities are making a great introduction to this week’s lesson in Sportsmanship!
