MetroWest495 Biz

MetroWest495 Biz | August 2014 23 This is the second time in recent memory that the company, Iron Mountain, has volunteered both its employees' time and company funds in this way. Iron Mountain, the global information management and data storage provider, which has operations in Northborough and Southborough, collaborated with the Connecticut State Library to create a condolence web- site, which archives the outpouring of grief after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. "Social responsibility is a part of our culture now," said Joe Binienda, opera- tions supervisor at Iron Mountain's Northborough facility. The company allows its employees paid time off to volunteer. Binienda is one of a dozen or so em- ployees who took on the sad task of sort- ing through and categorizing the items from the Boston Marathon makeshift memorial, including the iconic crosses erected to remember the people who were killed in the Patriots' Day bomb- ings - Martin Richard, Krystle Camp- bell and Lingzi Lu, and M.I.T. police officer Sean Collier - along with stuffed animals, sneakers, letters and other items. The memorial was left in place for two months until it was dismantled and originally catalogued by the Boston City Archives. Samantha H. Joseph, director of cor- porate responsibility for Iron Mountain at the time, is credited with reaching out to Boston city officials to offer Iron Mountain's storage facilities in Northborough, as well as the company's expertise. "Samantha was a lifelong Boston resi- dent and she understood, emotionally and functionally, that there was going to be a need to preserve items from the memorial," said Christian T. Potts, senior manager of corporate communi- cations. "People really wanted to know that it was (all) going to go someplace safe like this." Professional preservation The items from the memorial were transported from Boston to Northbor- ough in January. "Every item has been freeze-dried and deloused, but not cleaned" to preserve their authentic condition, Potts said. Iron Mountain, established in 1951, has more than 1,000 storage facilities in 36 countries. Its 600,000-square-foot Northborough records management center on Bearfoot Road houses pathol- ogy samples, documents, medical and legal records, as well as most of the memorial items. "It's an ideal environment for storing items like this," Potts said. Like so many people in Boston and beyond, many employees at Iron Mountain grew up watching the annual marathon, and have a personal connection with the Patriots' Day race. Jon Mailloux, an imaging coordina- tor, has worked for Iron Mountain for seven-and-a-half years. During a month earlier this year, he spent about six hours a day for a month carefully scanning every letter, picture, photo- graph and note — approximately 1,800 pieces — into the system. Some of the correspondence came to Boston from as far away as China and Afghanistan. The letters are now stored in cardboard boxes in a temperature-controlled stor- age space at the Northborough facility, along with the other items. "It was a little draining," Mailloux said. "It weighs on your mind." Task wrapped in emotion Mailloux lives in Grafton. He grew up in Salem and attended Boston Uni- versity. "The marathon is always a special event," he said. The year of the bomb- ings, his goddaughters were along the route on the day of the incident; he's grateful they were not hurt. "Jon was really particular in his work," Binienda said. All of the scanned letters and notes that were digitally preserved are now part of Northeast- ern University's digital archive and available to the public. The university also partnered with the Boston City Archives. (The permanent archive is accessible at: www.northeastern.edu/ marathon/bca.) The work of scanning, organizing and archiving the memorial items became a labor of love. "Everyone just kind of rolled up their sleeves and said, 'Let's do it,'" Potts said. For him, Boston Marathon day was always a special day. "I asked my wife to move in with me at the finish line," Potts said. "Everyone has their own Boston Marathon story. I know employees that ran that day. I had friends who were making the turn (near the finish line) that had to stop." Binienda said everything from the memorial was separated by category, and inventoried. He also credited Nancy Marche, operations manager, for working closely with Joseph, the former director of corporate responsibility. "Nancy was another (person) who re- ally felt this on a true emotional level," Potts said. Iron Mountain returned the preserved items to Boston for a one-year anniversary exhibit at the Boston Public Library in April. The items were col- lected from the library in June. "Job No. 1 for us was to preserve the item," Potts said. "And everything will stay here as long as Boston needs it to be." n Linda Bock is a freelance writer in Northborough. 905 Hartford Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA 01545 tel. 508.842.1213 • www.elevationee.com CUSTOM RENTAL GLOBAL GRAPHICS EVENTS PORTABLES IRoN MoUNTAIN Joe Binienda, operations manager at Iron Mountain's Northborough facility, with some of the many documents that show an outpouring of grief and support after last year's attack on the Boston Marathon.

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