I've been interested in handcrafting jewelry for several years. I had a website and Etsy shop under a different store name some time ago just as a hobby. For several reasons I "closed up shop" and put jewelry-making on the back burner.

I recently decided I wanted to get more involved with charity work, but with a full-time job, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to pursue (other than the usual monetary donations to several animal rescue, breast cancer awareness, and other organizations). I started researching many charitable organizations, but none caught my attention and really struck a chord with me as much as Global Medical Relief Fund did. The timing was incredible! I had been researching organizations for months. One evening my husband and I were flipping through the t.v. channels and we landed on CNBC's "60 Minutes". It just so happened that the topic was charitable organizations. They talked a lot about large, well-known organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation among others. At the end of the segment was an interview with Elissa Montanti, the founder of Global Medical Relief Fund and the story of one of the children they helped. That very night I sent GMRF an email to get more information.
I was searching for a smaller organization with a focus specifically on children harmed by armed conflict or natural disaster. These children are innocent and no matter what their background, they have no control over their terrible circumstances. I first started researching this topic as a result of what's happening in Syria, then related to Iraq and Afghanistan and it continued from there. The stories just grew and grew in number as well as geographical area! The more research I did about this over time the more my heart was breaking. This is exactly where Elissa Montanti's focus lies! After speaking with her a few times and coming up with my Etsy shop idea, I knew this shop would be a way I could spread the word and give back even it it's just a drop in the bucket!

So why "Starfish" in the shop name? The story below has been around for ages and has been modified many times, but the basic message has remained the same. Elissa and her team have adopted this message as a driving force behind GMRF!
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.”