Environmentalist and philanthropist Linda Gillick, whose efforts to remove toxins from local waterways inspired the book “Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation,” will speak at Georgian Court University on Tuesday, March 25, at 7:00 p.m. in the Little Theatre on GCU’s Lakewood campus. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and reservations are required.
“Water and air safety are serious concerns for our future,” said Cynthia Ninivaggi, Ph.D., who chairs GCU’s Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice. “As we conclude Women's History Month, our women's studies program looks to a woman leader who has made history here in our own backyard.”
Ms. Gillick is founder and executive director of Ocean of Love, the Ocean County nonprofit that is dedicated to helping families whose children are fighting cancer. The organization has served more than 450 families since its 1988 inception. Ms. Gillick, the author of “For the Love of Mike,” is also the parent of a son who has battled cancer.
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“When you’re dealt lemons, make lemonade,” Ms. Gillick told the national advocacy group Health Child, Healthy World, which named her a “Mom on a Mission” in June 2013. “Thirty-four years ago when my youngest son Michael was diagnosed at the age of 3½ months, this phrase became my family’s mantra. I had never smoked, drank, or used drugs. How does a baby get cancer? The environment!”
As more and more children from the Toms River area faced cancer diagnoses, Ms. Gillick tried to get state health officials involved. By 1996, journalists took notice, the story went national as statistics confirmed an unusually high rate of childhood cancer, and investigators learned that at least two chemical companies were illegally dumping materials that affected the local water table.
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“She is Toms River's own Erin Brockovich, an ordinary citizen holding polluters to account in a story no less movie-worthy, a story that took place right here in Ocean County,” said Dr. Ninivaggi. “Linda’s successful efforts to get the federal government to fund research into Toms River's cancer cluster—and to force clean up of the Reich Farm and the Ciba Geigy site—are an important part of environmental history.”
In March 2013, author Dan Fagin chronicled Ms. Gillick’s tireless advocacy, the lives of cancer-stricken children and the community’s extraordinary fight to protect the area’s waterways in “Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation,” dubbed by the New York Times as “a new classic of science reporting.”
To reserve seating for this event, contact Denise Molnar at 732.987.2369 or molnard@georgian.edu. Media inquiries may be directed to Dr. Cynthia Ninivaggi at 732.987.2365 or ninivaggic@georgian.edu.
