When Cindy and I lived in Beaufort, we went to Hunting Island Beach as often as we could. I would fish and Cindy would bask in the sun. It is one of greatest and best memories ever. One day we went to the beach and there were thousands of starfish on the beach. We both quickly started playing with them but then it occurred us they would die in the sun. Then we started putting as many as we could back in the water. It was after that I ran across the poem below:

An elderly man was picking up objects off the beach and tossing them out into the
sea. A young man approached and saw that the objects were starfish. He asked,
“Why in the world are you throwing starfish into the water?”
“If the starfish are still on the beach when the tide goes out and the sun rises high
in the sky, they will die,” replied the elderly man.
The young man countered, “That is ridiculous. There are thousands of miles of
beach and millions of starfish. You can’t really believe that what you’re doing
could possibly make a difference!”
The wise old man picked up another starfish, paused thoughtfully, and as he
threw it to the safety of the sea, he said, “It made a difference to that one.”

Well this is where I am going with this whole thing. Yesterday I received the scores from the all state auditions which happened last Saturday. I always look at them to see what they did well in and what they need to improve upon. I noticed that one of my clarinet players had a zero for her scales score. She was already 43rd out of 70 with a zero on her scales. This seemed odd so I found her in the cafeteria, I bet that was fun for her, and asked if she played her scales. She said yes. I then contacted the All-State chairwoman about the situation. She discover that the scale score had not been enter in the computer. After adding the 30 to the young ladies score she moved up to 17th in the state! This is huge for many reasons. This student may now have more oppertunities for scholarships and it really validates her work. I knew she was playing great before here audition too.

Now the other part of the story is about me. Sometimes I feel that the kids at DF don't really need me. They have a lot going for them. They come from good families and have advantages that some of my former students did not. That is great too. But sometimes I just feel like I am not "needed". They are certainly great young adults so don't get me wrong. But in me finding this mistake and hearing something so honest as I did this afternoon made me feel like I did make a difference for one starfish. All she said was "Thank you." That was reward enough for me.