It will not be long before I complete 50 years of fun and service with the Boy Scouts of America. In fact, it was President Dwight D. Eisenhower who signed my Eagle card back in 1957. Following my days as a Boy Scout, I went on to be a volunteer and was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend five summers in three different Scout camps as a Camp Director. A Camp Director has many duties to perform each week. For me, the most rewarding of these duties was presenting the Scoutmaster's minute at the end of each campfire. There was one story I would tell that has lived with me throughout my life. It is one you may have heard before, but it bears repeating. It tells about a boy and his love of life and nature.

The story begins with a boy walking down a beach shortly after the tide went out and revealed starfish stranded for miles on the sand. This young man began picking up starfish and throwing them back into the water. An elderly gentleman who wanted to know what the boy was doing confronted him. "Throwing starfish back into the ocean," the boy said. The man responded that there were hundreds of starfish on the beach, and it would be impossible for him to throw all of them back.

The boy acknowledged the man was correct, but as he picked up another and prepared to throw it back into the ocean, he looked up at the man and said, "I may not get them all back, but I will make a difference to this one." He then proceeded to throw it back into the ocean.

Whether it is the Boy Scouts of America or Free and Accepted Masons, we have the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life each and every day. We have no idea when it will happen or how it will happen, but we do know that if we keep our commitment to God and man, there will be a time in our life when we will make a difference to someone. We have the option to be like the man who thought there were too many to do any good, or we can be like the boy who felt he could have an effect, even if it was just in the life of one starfish.

Angelo G. Coppola, Sr. is a graduate of the University of Arkansas with a doctorate in public school administration. He has served as a teacher, principal, superintendent of school, Arkansas State Department of Education employee, and presently is the Deputy Director for the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. A retired Naval Officer and a member of the Executive Board for the Quapaw Council Boy Scouts of America, Dr. Coppola is also a Past Master and presently the Secretary of Albert Pike Lodge No. 714 in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a member of the York Rite and began serving as the Grand Chaplain for the Grand Lodge of Arkansas in February 2001.