It Matters to This One
A lesson from Kao Lawrie on why small community moments are where change actually begins
Five years ago, Kao Lawrie asked a simple question: were there others like me in hockey?
As a trans non-binary player, Kao rarely saw people who shared their experience in the sport. That question didn’t disappear over time. Instead, it turned into something real. It turned into This Tournament Has Everything, an inclusive hockey weekend on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia for women, trans, two-spirit, and non-binary players. What started as a small, community-driven idea has since grown into an event that brings together more than 120 players from across North America and beyond.
But in our recent conversation on Rinkside Rundown, it wasn’t the numbers that stuck with me the most. It was a story about a little girl and a starfish.
You’ve probably heard a version of it before. A little girl is on a beach, and a hundred starfish have washed ashore and are drying out in the sun. She’s picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. An older man watches her for a while, then tells her there are too many of them and that it won’t make any difference.
She picks up a starfish, looks at him, and says: “Well, it matters to this one.”
Kao shared that story when discussing the tournament and why a small, grassroots community event matters in a world where the bigger picture can feel completely overwhelming. And honestly, they’re right.
It’s easy to look at everything happening right now and feel paralyzed by the scale of it all. The problems are big, the noise is loud, and it can genuinely feel like nothing you do at the local or community level will move the needle on anything meaningful. But that’s not really how change works. It starts with one player feeling seen at a weekend tournament on the Sunshine Coast. It starts with one person walking away from that experience feeling like they actually belong in this sport. And then that person tells a friend, who shows up the following year, and before long, 120 players are lacing up their skates together.
As Kao put it, this is where the movement begins, and the hope is that it dominoes into something bigger from there.
This year’s tournament runs from March 6 to 8, 2026. If you know someone who needs to hear that hockey has a place for them, share this post, send them the episode, and let them know that the space exists.
Because it matters to this one. And the one after that.
The full episode of Rinkside Rundown with Kao Lawrie is available now on YouTube, and wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.