National Make a Difference to Children Month and The Starfish Story
July is National Make a Difference to Children Month! This month is the time to recognize that ONE PERSON can make all the difference in a child’s life.
This concept reminds me of The Starfish Story.
A man is taking a solitary walk on the beach and notices the beach is littered with starfish; starfish which have washed ashore and which need water to survive. He also notices a little boy frantically running from beach starfish to beach starfish, picking each one up and throwing them back, one by one, into the ocean.
After walking for a few minutes, the man approaches the little boy and asks, “What are you doing?” And the little boy responds, “I’m throwing the starfish back into the water so they can live.” Gently and remorsefully the man shakes his head and tells the boy, “There are too many starfish, son. What difference will throwing a few back, make?”
The boy pauses for only a moment before bending over, retrieving another helpless starfish and flinging it gently back into the sea. “I made a difference to that one”
Adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)
This story first came across my radar a few years back when I wrote a magazine article on how the role of “Guidance Counselors,” now called School Counselors, has evolved over the years.
I won’t go into deep detail, but I can assure you that these men and women are the unsung heroes of Middle School and High School.
Gone are the days of helping kids discover what they want to be when they grow up and their stretched thin days are spent working with students on a socio/emotional/mental health level.
These brave men and women shared with me how their roles are critical, yet the number of counselors is shrinking while the number of troubled kids is growing. A good example would be the fact that, at the school where my oldest attends, there are three counselors who service over 600 students EACH.
When I asked how they coped with potentially not getting to every child who needs support, the response was that they focus on The Starfish Story.
When the sheer numbers of the kids we help become overwhelming, I remember the story of the little boy who was rescuing beached starfish by throwing them back into the sea. When a passerby commented that throwing a handful of starfish back wasn’t going to make a difference, the little boy responded by tossing one more lucky starfish back into the water and commenting, ‘I made a difference to that starfish,” shared School Counselor, Alison M. “We get to, and help to our best ability, every child we can. We need to take comfort in what we can achieve, not in what we failed to do.”
The MCBD Team knows we can’t reach every family, every organization, every classroom…but we can do our very best to try.
So for National Make a Difference to Children Month, what will YOU do to make a difference to one child, one teacher, one author, one school?
You see, you just never know when you can make a difference in someone’s life. To you, it might be something small, but to that child, it could mean the world. So remember the starfish story and never, ever stop doing good and trying to make a difference in people’s lives.
The July Sponsorship Flash Sale is HERE!
Multicultural Children’s Book Day is in its eighth year and this diversity in children’s literature initiative occurs on the last Friday of every January. Our next celebration will be 1/29/2021.
Sponsorship provides participants with an amplified level of visibility and recognition for their multicultural/diverse children’s and YA books.
As a non-profit, MCBD also works tirelessly to get those books in front of parents, caregivers, educators, and librarians while also getting them into the hands of young readers. Read more about our mission here.
During the Flash Sale, Author Sponsorship and Platinum Level Sponsorships are reduced by 30% and the sale ends July 31. 2020.
**Other levels of sponsorship (Super, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze) will be available on September 1, 2020.***
If you are a diverse children’s book author or publisher, go here to download our Sponsorship Packet for 2021 to see all the perks that are included in the different levels of participation.
If you want to save some $$ and get on board for our 2021 celebration….
Go here to read more details about the Flash Sale.
Go here to secure a Flash Sale Platinum Level (only 2 spots left!)
Go here to secure a Flash Sale Author Sponsorship spot for 2021 (unlimited)
If this whole Sponsorship thing still puzzles you, check out this article, A July Flash Sponsorship Sale Tutorial+ The Power of Collaboration, from Project Manager, Becky Flansburg