By Adam C. Rohdie
As our girls and boys basketball teams closed out their ‘24-’25 campaigns earlier this month, we celebrated not only their amazing seasons, but also the fact that they were able to play in our new facility—The Donovan Mitchell Family Athletic Center, or “The DON” (Determination Over Negativity).
This new facility was made possible thanks to the incredible philanthropy and generosity of our alum and six-time NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell ‘12. While I’d argue there is not a better basketball facility in the area, it also serves, importantly, as an all-school gathering space.
It is a place where all 1,450 of our students came together to sing songs and celebrate at our Thanksgiving Assembly; it is the space where we held an all-community memorial service to honor Andrew Niblock—a teacher and former Head of Lower School who we lost way too soon to ALS; and this June, it will host the class of 2025 as they graduate from high school.
I share this gift, not to boast, but to acknowledge that we are the fortunate and grateful recipients of an incredible act of selflessness—a characteristic I fear may be fading away.
When Donovan Mitchell made the decision to honor GCDS with the athletics center, as well as funding for student scholarships and to support faculty, he contradicted the growing “me-first” attitude in this country.
Donovan has always been a giver. He once spontaneously bought an iPhone for a young man standing behind him in line; and he created Spidacares, a charitable organization that does amazing work all around the United States and abroad. Donovan’s magnanimous resolve extends well beyond monetary altruism and has been on display this season on the courts. His team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, sits atop the NBA with the best record in basketball. During this historic run for the team (as of this writing they had won 50 games and only lost 10) Donovan—a top player and true leader—has played fewer minutes and has seen his scoring average actually go DOWN—by design. Donovan intentionally worked to ensure the success of others; everyone around him saw their numbers go up, and most importantly, the team’s winning percentage skyrocketed.
We are all lucky to have a role-model like Donovan Mitchell to present a counter-narrative to the “me-first” perspective we see splashed across social media. I desperately want to live in a community where people think ‘pass first and shoot second.’ I want to live in a community, in a society, where we think of others before we think of ourselves.
The GCDS mission statement reads in part that we challenge students in mind, body, and spirit—for their personal growth and for the common good. Our Center for Public Good was established to nourish what we believe is an innate desire to make the world a better place. We help students learn about the needs of our community with the intention that they will be inspired to take action to support others. Not only does this improve our society and our world, but it also helps to create a sense of belonging, reduces feelings of isolation, keeps the important things in life in perspective, and it feels good. We have seen the powerful impacts of our students engaging members of Abilis in a variety of enriching activities, organizing events and fundraisers to address food insecurity, and volunteering with local nonprofits that tackle systemic issues in areas such as housing, education, and legal systems, among many other examples.
Watching our students engage in these selfless acts brings me hope that we can retain our sense of commitment to the common good. Now more than ever, schools and institutions need to celebrate the seemingly small acts of kindness from the individuals we encounter each day, in addition to MVPs like Donovan—as he will be the first to tell you, he is where he is due to the selflessness of others.
I encourage everyone to highlight and celebrate students and adults alike who may not score all the goals, or run the fastest, or capture the lead in the play, or earn the highest salaries, but they give from their heart with acts that put others before themselves. And let’s also celebrate the Donovan Mitchell’s of the world, not for three-point shots or fierce dunks in the lane, but rather for their compassion, their desire to make the world a better place, and their willingness not just to talk about it, but to step up and make it a reality.
Adam C. Rohdie is Head of School, history teacher, and coach at Greenwich Country Day School.
