Learn About 'Unlikely Environmentalist' At Ocean City Library

OCEAN CITY, NJ — A book signing of "Unlikely Environmentalist, the Donna Madaras Cuthbert Story: The Remarkable Story of a Small-Town Women's Clothing Store Owner Who Battled Corporate Polluters in the Toxic Triangle to Save Countless Lives" is set for 5-6:30 p.m. July 21, at the Ocean City Free Public Library. It will be followed by a screening of "Dangerous Grounds," a documentary film by Vinu Joseph at 7 p.m.

Both events are free to the public.

"Unlikely Environmentalist, the Donna Madaras Cuthbert Story" by Kelly Jameson and Dr. Lewis Cuthbert tells the battle of Donna Cuthbert, of Pottstown, PA, and Ocean City, who for years fought to have the three major polluters surrounding her Pennsylvania home – the Pottstown Landfill, Occidental Chemical and the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant, also known as the "Toxic Triangle" – shut down, according to a news release.

After noticing an alarming number of children and adults in her neighborhood getting sick and dying from cancers in 1995 Donna, the owner of a women's clothing store, became an unlikely environmentalist, fighting polluters in her community until the day she passed away from cancer in 2017.

Her husband, Dr. Lewis Cuthbert, a former college professor and school superintendent, joined her in the fight. After a decade-long battle, they achieved the impossible and got the toxic landfill closed in 2005, the same year Occidental Chemical was fined $1 million for over a dozen violations and closed their vinyl resins business and moved to Texas. Donna also stopped a toxic landfill gas pipeline from dangerously threading through her already ravaged community. She then started to educate her community about the dangers of radiation from the twin Limerick nuclear reactors, which she could see from her living room.

"This is a real-life David and Goliath story," said Cuthbert, president of the Alliance For A Clean
Environment (ACE), of his wife's battle. "Donna's story will resonate with everyone with pollution in their own backyards. Our hope is that it will inspire them to fight back against the greed and deceptions of corporate, profit-driven polluters who see them and their children as collateral damage."

The authors will be on-site in the Community Center Atrium to sign copies of their book. The program will also include an update on nuclear issues for New Jersey and beyond by Joe Mangano, Director, Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP). The signing and the brief discussion will be followed by a screening of the 13-minute documentary film "Dangerous Grounds" by Vinu Joseph in the library's Lecture Hall.

Ocean City Library is located at 1735 Simpson Ave. in Ocean City. More info can be found at OceanCityLibrary.org.