2025 Starfish Awards

At the annual Starfish Awards, we honor a community volunteer who has made a difference for "the one" or the vulnerable, based on the starfish legend...

An old man was walking on the beach early one morning after a terrible storm. As he looked along the beaches, he saw thousands of starfish washed up onto the sand in danger of drying up once the run rose. In the distance he saw someone moving, jumping up and down, in constant motion. As he came closer, he saw that it was a young boy picking up the starfish, one by one, and gently tossing them back into the ocean.

The old man approached him and said, “What are you doing? Why are you throwing these starfish into the ocean?”

“The sun will be rising soon, and the tide has gone out. If I don’t throw them back, they will die” he replied.

“Do you not realize there are miles and miles of beach and thousands of starfish? You cannot possibly make a difference” the old man responded.

The young boy listened, carefully bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “I made a difference to that one” he said “I made a difference to that one” he said again tossing back another.