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 throw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”

According to Carol Allen, Chair of the National Rescue Committee of the Golden Retriever Club of America: “Adopt a Golden Atlanta is being recognized for its creative and generous effort in assisting a group of their adopters in Tennessee in forming a Golden Retriever Rescue organization. Moral support and day-by-day advice were provided, in addition to policy/procedure manual, job descriptions and forms, sharing of the licensing rights to the professionally designed logo, website design, a custom database, seed money and the training of all board members and team leaders by Adopt a Golden Atlanta volunteers. As a result, Adopt a Golden Knoxville began operation in 2011. Additionally, because of the same generous sharing, Adopt a Golden Birmingham began operation early in 2012. Adopt a Golden Atlanta also contributed significantly to the development of Great Pyrenees Rescue of Atlanta.” The award will be presented at the 2012 National Specialty in St.Louis.

Lauren Genkinger, Founder & President of Adopt a Golden Atlanta, said: “On behalf of our board of directors and all our volunteers and supporters who make AGA what it is today, I thank the GRCA for this recognition. We started AGA in 2003 to make a difference, one golden at a time. As we approach our 3,000th golden saved, it is more than gratifying to know we are helping others do the same thing.”