The audience inside Toms River, NJ’s Grunin Center of the Arts auditorium this Thursday, April 12, 2018 is excited at the prospect of meeting the real-life hero behind the Hollywood blockbuster, Erin Brockovich! Portrayed in the movie by Julia Roberts — who won a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance — the film also received four additional Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Steven Soderbergh), Best Supporting Actor (Albert Finney), and Best Original Screenplay (Susannah Grant), in addition to four Golden Globe nominations.

At the Grunin Center — located on the campus of Toms River’s Ocean County College — Ms. Brockovich takes the stage to large applause where she immediately finds a pair of American sign language interpreters ready to communicate her speech. Interacting with the signers, she reveals that she is already familiar with American sign language because she has a special needs granddaughter.

Greeting the audience with a smile, Brockovich announces, “You are so nice! Is this how New Jersey always is? I love it. I’m excited to be here!”

Explaining that her goal this evening is to “share a story or two and a laugh or two,” Brockovich confesses that, mostly, “I’ll be sharing a process I developed through my hands-on learning experiences.”

Opening with comments about the film which recounts her legal fight with a California power company accused of polluting a city’s water supply, Brockovich seems surprised to reveal that it’s been 18 years since the movie was released and 27 years “since I was in that small town of Hinkley, California.”

Stating, “It’s really surreal — just weird — to have a film made about me — and then to have it named after me, too!” Brockovich explains, “When director Steven Soderbergh first said the name of the movie, it was an ‘oh-sh*t’ moment for me.” Despite that it’s nearly two decades later, however, Erin jokes that she still introduces herself to strangers by stating, “Hi. I’m Erin Brockovich — not Julia Roberts!”

Revealing, “I have a lot to share to explain how I got where I am,” Brockovich proceeds to relate memories from her childhood to the packed house.

Growing up in Lawrence, Kansas, Brockovich says she had an “easy, simple, comfortable, happy life.”

When she was five, her parents would take her to Watson Park, a favorite place because it had an old railroad steam engine on display on the premises.

“I loved playing on that train!” exclaims Brockovich, noting, “I was the conductor — I was in charge of my life,” before recalling how she would use her imagination to invent exciting adventures for herself.

Coming down from the train one fateful day, however, Erin found herself scared to climb back down the ladder. Even though her father was waiting at the bottom with his hands outstretched and ready to catch her, Erin fell and hit her head on every rung on the ladder before having her face planted onto the steel track.

Although she says she “had a concussion for days and two black eyes for a year,” Brockovich recovered with no lasting effects until, as she explains, “my parents noticed I was putting my shoes on the wrong feet…. turning things around… and losing my direction.”

Over the next few years, in school, Brockovich says, “I became very visual — I memorized everything instead of reading and applying it. I also became argumentative and I wouldn’t comply with the educational system.”

Labeled with descriptions like “lazy,” “dumb,” and “careless,” Brockovich was eventually diagnosed with trauma-induced dyslexia.

Admitting she was “hurt by the label,” Brockovich nevertheless insists that she understood what she was learning in school but, due to her disability, “couldn’t explain it” in traditional ways.

It wasn’t until she was in high school that one of her teachers, as she relates, “allowed me to be different because she knew I could learn,” testing Erin orally and giving her her first opportunity to “earn my first 100% in years.”

Brockovich’s mother also helped her to succeed in school, acting as her support system and #1 “cheerleader,” encouraging her to find “my stick-to-it-tiveness.”

Through the years, with her mother’s guidance, Brockovich learned some important life lessons including, “Just because I was different didn’t mean I was inferior,” “Disruption isn’t always a bad thing,” and “Even though others had seen me as ‘less than,’ that didn’t have to be the way I saw myself.”

After graduating from high school, Brockovich entered the workforce and started entering beauty pageants. By the time she was 22, she found herself married with two children, but she divorced and married again before having a third child and divorcing yet again.

Upon moving to California, she met Ed Masry, a lawyer who became her mentor and best friend. Masry put Brockovich to work in his office as a legal assistant.

Assigning her to a real estate case, Erin found a number of medical records inside a file of what should have exclusively been real estate documents. After she began to delve deeper into the case, however, Brockovich went on to find enough evidence to prove that the groundwater in Hinkley was seriously contaminated with a carcinogen.

Since that first case, she and Masry went on to participate in other anti-pollution lawsuits as well.

Explains Brockovich, “People think that when the EPA arrives, we will be saved,” but as she likes to warn, “Superman is not coming. We have to save ourselves!”

By way of example, she describes a situation in Hannibal, Missouri where a water issue existed and the community “voted two grandmas into office and changed the legislation.”

“Disruption wakes us up!” she contends, and when it does, she says, “You’re it — you’re the change!”

Promising the crowd, “I’m going to keep fighting till the day I die,” Brockovich proudly shares with the audience her website, Community Healthbook, a self-reporting site which serves as a database listing pollution trouble spots across the United States.

Cautioning, “A watershed moment is here — we will rise to that challenge!” Brockovich promises the members of the audience, “You, too, will be a part of this change.”

During a question-and-answer session, Brockovich answers queries from audience members about various issues related to her work as an environmentalist.

When asked what “regular people” can do about local environmental issues, Brockovich tells audience members to “go to City Council meetings where permits and zonings start and tell them what the members of the community want.”

When asked if she has any specific thoughts about drinking bottled water, Brockovich replies by telling a story about when she was in Indonesia where she was “terrified of the water,” before exclaiming, “I didn’t shower and I brushed my teeth with beer!” Warning the audience to “know your water and water quality — make it your job,” she asserts, “Do not take it for granted!”

She also mentions her new book which is scheduled to be released next year entitled The Truth of America’s Water Supply.

Following appreciative applause from the Grunin Center audience for her intriguing presentation this evening, we take a moment to chat with several individuals in the crowd who share their perspective on tonight’s presentation.

Brittany from Manahawkin says, “I came tonight because I take a Pine Barren ecology class here at Ocean County College. I had seen the movie about Erin Brockovich before, and I watched it again before tonight’s speech.”

Commenting, “Erin Brockovich was very inspirational,” Brittany reveals that one important thing she learned this evening is, “People need to be told that they don’t need to be someone important in order to make a difference.”

We also chat with Stafhannie from Lakewood who says, “I liked that Erin Brockovich’s presentation had hard data,” before acknowledging, “but it was more inspirational than I ever thought it would be!”

Bill from Toms River remarks, “Erin Brockovich has insights that the rest of us don’t have because of her vast knowledge.”

Adding, “This program was quite worthwhile,” Bill comments, “Ms. Brockovich is a motivational speaker, and her database is a very valuable service to the nation. She is to be commended for her work.”

For more information on Erin Brockovich, please go to brockovich.com. To check out Erin Brockovich’s Community Healthbook, please click on communityhealthbook.com. To learn more about future programs at Ocean County College’s Grunin Center of the Arts — including Peter, Paul and Mary’s Peter Yarrow on May 11, Hotel California: A Salute to the Eagles on May 18, and The Great Rock ’n Roll Time Machine on July 28 — please go to grunincenter.org.