The story of the star thrower
Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.
Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the boy walked, he paused every so often and, as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea. The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young boy paused, looked up, and replied: “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves. When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water”.
The old man replied: “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference”.
The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled, and said, “It made a difference to that one!”¹
¹ The starfish story, also known as "The Star Thrower", originated from a 1969 essay by Loren Eiseley
'The Star Thrower' story provides context to the work that we do at the Saint Nicholas Children's Trust.
We are passionate about making a difference to each and every child, even if this means that we are helping just one child at a time.