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Gelderland | January 29, 2021

Column by chairman Johan Kruithof: 'It's all about that one!'

At the start of a new year, in which we once again strive to include marginalized children, I was reminded of a trip to the United States. I was there with colleagues to explore how the social security system worked in Arizona. A working visit to a Navajo Indian reservation (as they prefer to be called) was on the agenda. On the reservation, American society was revealed in all its harshness.

Much misery in a desolate landscape with meager houses and dignified people unwilling to speak out about their plight. We visited a school, similar to our own elementary school. Many children were cheerfully learning in a sometimes depressing environment. The school's symbol was a starfish. All the children wore a starfish pin on their chest. I found it a rather peculiar symbol. After all, the reservation is located in the heart of the American desert in Arizona, at least 2,000 kilometers from the sea. I asked the teacher who had hospitably shown us around about the origins of this symbol. This is his story.

We, the Navajo, once lived in many places in the American West. The earth was our home. We hunted and cultivated what we needed to live on our land. We also lived by the sea for parts of the year. Those days are over, but we want our children to know the sea. That's why every grandfather takes his grandchildren to the sea one day. It's our tradition. One day, one of the grandfathers walked along the beach with his grandson. Thousands of starfish, as their life story goes, had washed up on the beach that night. The grandson He continually picked up starfish and brought them back to the sea to save them. Grandfather looked at his grandson and finally asked, "Why are you doing that, my child? There are thousands of them, you can't save them all!" The boy picked up another starfish from the sand, took his grandfather's hand, and walked with him and the starfish to the water's edge. Arriving at the surf, he threw the starfish back into the sea and said, "I can't save a thousand, so for many starfish it's too late, but not for this one. Every starfish saved is a success."

After a moment of silence, the narrator said to me: “And that's how it is here at this school. We won't be able to offer them all a better future. Some of them will fall back into the life we lead here. But every now and then there's that one. That one student who makes progress. Who elevates themselves, and with it, our people. That's why we've embraced the starfish symbol.”

I still have the starfish pin at home. It reminds me every now and then of the purpose of what we do, for example, as the Youth Fund. It doesn't always work. Sometimes it goes wrong. But every now and then. That one!

Johan Kruithof
Chairman of the Youth Fund for Sports & Culture Gelderland