Holy Cross and Blackstone Collaboratory to Host Environmental Legend Marion Stoddart

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Environmental Studies Program at the College of the Holy Cross and the Blackstone Collaboratory will host local environmental legend Marion Stoddart. The lecture and trailer viewing for a forthcoming documentary titled “The Work of 1000,” which will chronicle Stoddart’s role in cleaning up the Nashua River, will take place on Wednesday, April 16 from 7 – 9 p.m. in Rehm Library at Holy Cross. Stoddart and Dorie Clark, the director of the film, will be in attendance to speak about the project. The event is free and open to the public.  Free parking is available on campus.

“Marion’s work in cleaning up the Nashua River is an inspiration to citizen activists everywhere,” explains producer Susan Edwards. “This dramatic environmental success story shows that ordinary citizens can make a difference, even when the odds seem impossible.”

The trailer, intended to raise awareness about the project, is the first step in producing a full-length documentary film, which is scheduled for release in spring 2009. The cleanup of the Nashua—once, one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the nation—represents a significant environmental victory in Massachusetts history.

The Nashua River is located in Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.  Formed in eastern Worcester County, the Nashua River generally flows north-northeast through Groton, Mass. to Nashua, N.H., where it joins the Merrimack River.  During the colonial period, paper, shoe and textile factories relied on rivers, such as the Nashua, to aid manufacturing by taking water and releasing wastes into the river.  The toxins resulted in the river changing colors almost daily, and becoming one of the most polluted rivers in the U.S.

Realizing the importance of cleaning the river, Stoddart launched her vision in the mid-1960s and formed the Nashua River Clean-Up Committee.  She and her supporters aimed to clean the river and protect the land along its banks.  In 1969, they formed the Nashua River Watershed Association to research and produce a long-range plan to improve the river’s poor conditions.  Today, much of the pollution has been cleaned due to their efforts, the Clean Water Act and the addition of eight new sewage treatment plants.  Stoddart has been honored for her advocacy with a United Nations Award, was featured as a citizen hero by The Today Show, and became the subject of a widely-read children’s book, titled A River Ran Wild (1992) by Lynne Cherry.

For more information about the event, email blackstone@holycross.edu or call 508-793-2456.  To learn more about the film or to donate, please visit www.workof1000.com.