Eddie Stephens gives keynote address at Florida Association of Student Councils District Meeting

Ward Damon attorney Eddie Stephens was the keynote speaker at the Florida Association of Student Councils district meeting at Royal Palm Beach High School this week as part of Leadership Palm Beach County‘s #LeadershipGrow program. Eddie encouraged the youth to #DoSomethingThatMatters by expanding their leadership roles and becoming involved in their communities based on the concept of “The Starfish Story”.

The Starfish Story

A young man is walking along the ocean and sees a beach on which thousands and thousands of starfish have washed ashore. Further along he sees an old man, walking slowly and stooping often, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean.

“Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks.

“Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.”

“But, old man, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it! You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.”

The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”