For Immediate Release
April 6, 2015
Contact Eric Olson, UW Extension - Lakes Director
715-346-2192
eolson@uwsp.edu
Marion Stoddart coming to Stevens Point to share her personal story of cleaning waterways for over
fifty years
Several University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student organizations are collaborating with UW
Extension – Lakes to bring Marion Stoddart to campus for a free presentation during Earth Week. At 87
years old, Marion is a testament to the power of persistence and organizing to restore polluted waters
and protect them from future harm. Stoddart’s talk will follow a screening of the short film, The Work of
1000, and will take place Friday April 24th at 3:00 pm in the Theater of the Dreyfus University Center.
In the 1960s, Stoddart was a housewife with three children who was personally fed up with the pollution
in the Nashua River outside her Massachusetts home. She lobbied successfully for new clean-water laws
in New England and worked to obtain millions of dollars of federal funding to fight pollution. She also
helped found the Nashua River Watershed Association, which recently managed to have the river listed
as a candidate for federal Scenic and Wild River designation. Still she remains humble, stating “what I
wanted to do was to make a difference in the world, which is what we all want to do – and can do.”
Students and community members can learn a lot from Stoddart's experience. A self-described ordinary
woman, she was able to mobilize policy makers, politicians, business leaders, and a skeptical public to
share her vision for a clean and restored river. What she accomplished and how she did it provides an
eye-opening incentive for each of us to drive positive change in our communities today.
The presentation at UW Stevens Point is part of Marion's continuing campaign to urge colleges and civic
organizations across the United States to help nurture a strong corps of engaged citizens, focused on
improving social issues, confident they can make a difference, and committed to action. “Get inspired,”
Stoddart urges, “Envision what you’d like to have happen, then commit.”
The Friday event is being organized by the UWSP campus chapters of Save the Frogs, the American
Water Resources Association, Women in Natural Resources, Students for Wetland Awareness,
Management and Protection, the UWSP Student Government Association, and the UW Extension –
Lakes program, with additional support from the College of Natural Resources. Additional Earth Week
activities will be taking place on campus from April 20th through the 25th.
Stoddart will also be the keynote speaker at the 2015 Wisconsin Lakes Partnership Convention on
Saturday April 25 at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Convention Center in Stevens Point. The convention
offers opportunities to learn more about lake management, including hands-on workshops, educational
displays and exhibits, research presentations, off-site tours and demonstrations, panels of experts in
lake science, and several networking opportunities. Registration is required for Saturday’s event, learn
more at www.uwsp.edu/uwexlakes