"You make a difference, every day."

Among other things in a very busy Thursday that included working with clients in the evening, was a luncheon to thank volunteers from the past year at the non-profit for which I work. I had 52 registered volunteer hours and 200+ that weren't.

My boss made a nice speech with kind words about me along with announcing to everyone that they had hired me since last year. (He repeated parts of this later with details to my faculty advisor because the quarterly meeting about my progress was today too). During the luncheon I was also given several very nice small gifts- among them a detailed pewter lapel pin in the shape of a starfish and pinned to a card with the words below. This is the second time in two weeks these words have been handed directly to me in different forms. I really like them and thought I would pass them along.

"Making a Difference"

An old man walked up a shore littered with thousands of starfish,
beached and dying after a storm.

A young man was picking them up and flinging them back into the ocean.

"Why do you bother?" the old man scoffed.
"You're not saving enough to make a difference."

The young man picked up another starfish and sent it spinning back to the water.

"Made a difference to that one," he said.

~~~~~

The note card ends with the words: "You make a difference, every day."

I can't change the world single handedly, but I can make a difference, one person, one moment at a time. So can you.

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