There’s a story in leadership circles that goes like this:

One night, there was a really big storm and the next morning, a man went to the beach, and as far as the eye could see in both directions, there were thousands and thousands of starfish that had washed up onto the beach. He started walking down the beach, and in the distance, he saw what looked like someone dancing. As he got closer, he realized it was a young woman, and she wasn’t dancing, she was picking up starfish and throwing them into the ocean. When he got to her, he asked, “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean? There’s so many, you can’t possibly make a difference.” She looked at him, stooped down, picked up a starfish, threw it into the ocean, and responded, “I just made a difference for that one.”

This story was the inspiration for naming the company. We want the people we serve to be like the starfish – we make a difference for each one. We researched names of mythological water deities, and discovered Vellamo, the ancient Finnish goddess of the sea. The Vellamo Leadership Institute is named after her and the starfish is our spirit animal.