My colleague Wendy Winterburn met with the wonderful Parent Support Advisers last week and sent me this...


Dear Chris, I thought you might like to see the story below from Vivienne Gibbons one of our Parent Support Advisers. Hope you are well, Wendy.

"Hi Rebecca,
Tony Beswick the Centre Manager at the St George's Crypt who I have worked with briefly in the past sent me a leaflet which I feel sums up the sentiment of some of the work as PSA's we are trying to do. I have typed out below the transcript of the leaflet...... 'does it make a difference'. An old, old story claimed by many as theirs, but probably belongs to all of us ...

"While walking along a beach, a man saw in the distance what looked like a boy dancing. He was encouraged by the outward expression of someone dancing to the new day on the beach, and he approached the young man. As he got closer, he realized that the young man was actually running, leaning down, picking something up and then gently throwing it far into the ocean.

As he came closer, he saw thousands of starfish the tide had thrown onto the beach. Unable to return to the ocean during the low tide, the starfish were dying. He observed the young man picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back.

After watching the seemingly futile effort, the observer said to the young man, "There must be thousands of starfish on this beach. It would be impossible for you to get to all of them. There is simply too many. You can't possibly save enough to make a difference."

"It made a difference to that one," he replied.

The older man shook his head at the impossible optimism of the young man, and then turned away and walked home. That night, he sat for a long time thinking of the young man, and determined that the young man was to really affecting the world and taking action to make a difference. Something that the older man would like to do. That night he slept fitfully.

In the morning, he awoke, went down to the beach and found the young man again. Then together, they went along the beach shore tossing starfish back into the ocean."

I'm not usually into too much gush or sentimentality but I thought this was quite a reflective piece and sums up alot of what some of the psa's experiences shared on Tuesday.
Viv Gibbons"

However many times I read that story, and there are so many different versions, it makes me realise why I do what I do.
Chris