letter and postage, to the Army Corps of Engineers, Syracuse, NY.”
Within a week, the Corps office was flooded with hundreds of large shipping crates and letters requesting “surplus chain saws.” Nobody could figure out who had placed the ad, or why, but the event attracted national media attention. It was also a sensation in Hoffman’s tiny community — everywhere people were talking about it.
That week, Hoffman repeated his doorknocking rounds. But this time, he had a different message. “What do you mean, nobody pays attention to you?” he asked. “What about those chainsaws? Look
at the fuss you can make just by writing a few letters.” That, of
course, was the beginning of a potent citizens’ group “Save the
