Archive for October, 2020

Traditions Old, Traditions New

Friday, October 23rd, 2020

“And how do we keep our balance? I can tell you in one word. Tradition”

Tradition is engrained in the backbone not just in Fiddler on the Roof but also at Camp Starlight. Camp starts with the Opening Night Show and concludes with the Closing Night Show. There are campfires, singalongs, and color war in between. All of these things happen the same way, every year, each year bringing its own flare. Camp just wouldn’t be the same without our long-standing traditions.

But what’s better than long-standing traditions? New traditions that campers and staff add to camp each year. While certain traditions may seem like they’ve existed forever, they had to come from somewhere. One day, a camper or staff member said something, did something or had an idea that blossomed into a yearly tradition. For example, in 2015, we had a counselor who sang a song called “Hey Burrito.” This song is still sung every year during swim tests even though this counselor has not returned to camp. The ability of a counselor or camper to impact the entire camp for years to come is what is so special about traditions. Campers come to camp to be themselves. At Camp Starlight, we value each individual camper. And who knows? Maybe your camper will bring something so unique to camp that we incorporate it into one of our long-standing traditions. The possibilities are endless.

Learning to Lose

Tuesday, October 6th, 2020

Walking off the field, high-fiving your teammates, and grabbing a snack after a close victory is one of the greatest feelings in sports. Players and coaches work hard all year to win. When they walk off the field after earning “the dub,” the whole team can take solace in a finite result.

The other team. The losing team. That is where real character is shown. Winning is easy, taking a loss with good sportsmanship, and learning from it is significantly harder.

At Camp Starlight, we offer top-quality instruction in all our activities to prepare campers for inter-camp competitions and for their lives at home. However, no matter how gifted our campers and staff are, we are not always the best at every activity. We lose sometimes.

Losing at camp, though, is not a permanent result. Losing is a learning opportunity and a chance to grow. It is also a chance to build resilience and perseverance to win the next game or competition. Our mature staff leads by example and loses with grace and sportsmanship. We always shake hands after games and work with campers not to be negative with ourselves or our teammates.

One of our coaches used to say “You have to learn to lose before you can love to win.” If you can’t learn to lose, which means using it as a tool to move forward and progress, then you will never get better to win. We cherish every win with humility and learn from every loss.

Win, lose, or draw, the true winners are the competitors who gave it their all, had fun and demonstrated sportsmanship. That’s what camp and competition are all about.