National Outdoor Leadership School - Index

National Outdoor Leadership School - Summer2008 - Index

6
THE
Leader
Hanging Out To Dry:
BY LAUREN WETHERBEE, NOLS ALUMNI INTERN
It’s amazing how much controversy something as simple as
a clothesline can generate. What used to be the norm—
hanging clothes to dry outside—has become a hotly contested
issue in many communities in the United States, and NOLS
grad Alexander Lee is right in the middle of it. As founder
and executive director of Project Laundry List, Alex has
turned a lifelong passion for conservation and public service
into a remarkable grassroots “Right to Dry” advocacy group.
The group got its start in 1995 at Middlebury College,
where Alex was an undergrad. Inspired by a talk given by
Dr. Helen Caldicott—in which she noted, “If we all did
things like hang out our clothes, we could shut down the
nuclear industry,"—Alex and some friends thought, “Let’s
do something.” They began hanging messages on clotheslines
to protest Hydro-Quebec’s construction of hydroelectric
dams in the James Bay region in Quebec, and Project
Laundry List was born.
The Project Laundry List mission is to “use words, images,
and advocacy to educate people about how simple lifestyle
modifications, including air-drying one’s clothes, reduce our
dependence on environmentally and culturally costly energy
sources.” They promote clothesline art and writings, participate
in fairs, give presentations, and publish a newsletter
called Hanging Out. They began National Hanging Out Day,
which occurs every April 19, and joined forces with the national
Community Association Institute to advocate for everyone’s right
“The PROBLEM is that in a lot of
NEIGHBORHOODS, community
associations see HANGING LAUNDRY as a flag of
POVERTY, and they have BANNED it in public.”