OUR INSPIRATION

Once, a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf’s edge and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached, he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was struck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. But the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and placing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person the man said, “You must be crazy. There are miles of beach covered with starfish. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and picked up one more starfish and placed it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, “It sure made a difference to that one!”

The mission of Starfish Connection is to address Stamford’s opportunity gap by providing long-term mentoring, after-school and summer enrichment programs, and educational support to promising students from the city’s underserved families. We pair a mentor with a student, one-on-one to provide these resources.

The Starfish Connection is a 501c3 corporation. We rely on generous contributions like yours to fulfill our mission. Your donation will be used to support after school and summer enrichment activities for these academically talented Stamford youth. If you would like to make a tax-deductible
donation to the Starfish Connection, please do so on our donation page!

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Our Founder and Inspiration

The Starfish Connection website is dedicated to the memory of our cofounder, Judith Martin. Judy and her husband David had a dream of enriching and changing the lives of promising Stamford young people.