February 8, 2010
Little America Hotel and Conference Center
Cheyenne, WY
The “Starfish Thrower Award” gets it’s name from the story of the boy throwing starfish from the beach into the ocean. When a stranger asks, “Why bother? There are too many for you to make a difference,” the boy responds as he throws another back into the water, “I made a difference for that one!” Recipients of the 2010 Starfish Thrower Award were acknowledged during a dinner in Cheyenne on February 8, 2010. The Starfish Thrower Awards are given annually by the Wyoming Department of Health’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Division. Awards were given to each recipient by Dr. McBride, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Rodger McDaniel, who heads the division, said, “This is a way to celebrate the growing number of success stories. Every community in Wyoming has people and programs working together to improve mental health and substance abuse services. The Starfish event celebrates their work.”
The annual Starfish Awards specifically acknowledge in the following catagories - please be thinking about someone that you would like to nominate for the 2011 Awards:
• Persons in recovery from substance abuse
• Persons in recovery from a mental health disorder
• A substance abuse and/or mental health treatment advocate
• A public servant which can include an elected or appointed official, judge, legislator, or other public official
• A substance abuse and/or mental health treatment program
• A community coalition
• A substance abuse therapist
• A mental health therapist
• A Wyoming youth, youth group, school, class, or individual under the age of 25 years advocating or supporting recovery
• A Wyoming family or parents who are in recovery
For more information, please contact: Shawna Kautzman at: Shawna.Kautzman@health.wyo.gov
The Starfish Thrower Story
I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, faraway movement. I saw a boy, bending and reaching and waving his arms – dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.
“As I approached, I sadly realized that he was not dancing, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the boy the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," he replied. ‘When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea.’
“I looked at the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the boy's plan became clear to me and I pointed out, ‘But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference.’
He paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said,
"I made a difference to that one.”