Remembering Local Heroes

Oct 25, 2024 | Adventures, Coast, Ecology, Environment, Nature, Oceans, Outdoors

Thirty years ago, on assignment for a national women’s magazine,  I visited Bodega Bay for the first time to interview the parents of Nicholas Green, a seven-year-old boy who became an international hero and unofficial patron saint of organ donation.

Piccolo Nicola” (little Nicholas), as Italians call him, was killed by bandits’ gunfire as his family drove through southern Italy in the autumn of 1994. In their darkest hour, Reginald and Maggie Green donated his organs, saving or transforming the lives of seven Italians.

What struck me—and millions of others around the world —were the Greens’ generosity of spirit, rejection of bitterness and commitment, in his mother’s words, to make “something good come out of something that was so senseless.”  Nicholas’s liver went to a comatose nineteen-year-old woman who recovered, married and named her son for him. A frail 15-year-old boy with a lethal cardiac condition joyfully compared his new heart to a Ferrari. Thanks to Nicholas’s donated cornea, a young mother was able to see her baby for the first time.

The Nicholas effect, as it became known, extended far beyond these recipients. Italy’s rate of organ and tissue donations, once among the lowest in Europe, has quadrupled. More than 150 schools, streets, piazze, parks, an amphitheater, a bridge and an intensive care unit in Italy bear Nicholas’s name. His story has inspired books, poems, paintings, sculptures, a made-for-television movie  and a global foundation. As Reg Green observed, his son became “a catalyst who changed the thinking of millions.”

Although the Greens moved to Southern California years ago, Bodega Bay hasn’t forgotten its native son.  A tower in a quiet grove, adorned with more than 140 bells from Italian children, schools and churches,  attracts visitors, who often leave toys and small mementos. Nicholas’s sister Eleanor, only four years old when he died, was married at the site. Reg Green calls it “a little piece of Italy’s soul on the Pacific.”

This fall we also are remembering local heroes who saved Bodega Bay at a critical moment in our history. In the late 1950s, PG&E, determined to build an atomic-powered energy plant on Bodega Head, began excavating a huge crater for a nuclear reactor within a quarter-mile of the San Andreas Fault. Locals dubbed it “the Hole in the Head.”

A feisty coalition of ranchers and fishermen, scientists and students, mothers and musicians rallied to block the mighty utility’s plans.  After fierce fighting in the courts of law and public opinion, backed by the emerging science of plate tectonics, the “Hole in the Head Gang” prevailed. On October 30,1964, under political and public pressure, PG&E withdrew its application from the Atomic Energy Commission. (I will recount more of the story in my next blog post.)

The Rancho Bodega Historical Society, the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods and the Museum of Sonoma County are commemorating this occasion with a free webinar at 7:00 p.m. (PST) on November 11.  I hope you will join me and other panelists to learn about the epic battle that derailed an atomic plant and launched the environmental movement.  You can find more information and register here. A recording will be available on YouTube after the event.

In this season of remembrance, I’ve been reflecting on these two very different stories. By inspiring people around the world to donate organs,  a small-town boy touched more lives than many a prince or politician.   Defying  a corporate colossus, a motley group of citizens-turned-activists preserved an iconic part of the California Coast.   Both tales remind us of the same invaluable lesson: Even  after a tragic loss or against improbable odds, ordinary people with extraordinary dedication can change the world and create a better future.

Dianne Hales, a New York Times best-selling author, serves as a docent and research volunteer at the University of California, Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory and Reserve; a tide pool guide for the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods; and a monitor for the Seabird Protection Network.

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