A man was walking along the beach one morning. Down the beach he saw a young person dashing back and forth into the surf. He smiled thinking the person was enjoying a game on this beautiful morning so he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer he saw the young person carefully picking something out of the sand, running to the surf and very gently throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer he called out, "Hello! What are you doing?"

The young person paused the game looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish in the ocean. The sun is up and the tide is going out, if I don't throw them, they'll die."

"But don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You can't possibly make a difference!"

After listening politely, the young person bent down, picked up another starfish and gently tossed it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said, "I made a difference to that one."