Tim Pelton on Earth Day and Leadership

Host David Magolis interviews Tim Pelton, a Bloomsburg native and campus civic engagement coordinator, about his background and the university’s Earth Day event. Pelton describes growing up near Fishing Creek and experiencing major floods, studying marine biology before switching to an English degree at Penn State with an ecology certificate, and becoming a freelance writer who eventually edited an underwater/scuba publication that grew into one of the world’s largest. He discusses diving experiences and efforts to promote environmentally responsible diving (“take only pictures, leave only bubbles”). Pelton then outlines Bloomsburg’s Earth Day history and its evolution into a larger quad event on Wednesday, April 22, 10–2, themed “Our Planet, Our Future: Let’s Take Action,” featuring music, educational activities, eco-friendlier food, community groups, and an eco-art contest with cash prizes. A rapid-fire segment covers his love of seasons, favorite song (“Rocket Man”), inspirations, advice to have adventures, and favorite local pizza spots.

Transcript

Part 1

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back, friends. You're listening to another episode of the Campus in Character Podcast, where we explore leadership stories to inspire growth and connect leaders. I'm your host, David McGolis, and I'm with a very special guest, Tim Pelton. Tim is here on the Bloomsburg campus. He is a civic engagement coordinator. Tim, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

We had a big event coming up. Right. Called Earth Day. Right. We're going to get into that in a second, but can you give us a little background about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Sure. Well, I grew up in Bloomspur. I'm a native. Wow. And was actually born in the hospital, which you could almost throw a stone and hit from here.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Yeah, right across the street.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Yep. Had wonderful parents, had a uh storybook childhood, grew up near a creek, and was in the creek as often as was humanly possible. Is that fishing creek? Yep. I love that place. Uh unfortunately it turns on us from time to time. So in 1972, 2006, and 2011, it visited us in the living room, which is not too close. Yeah. So now the house is seven feet off the ground, which makes you me sleep a lot better at night, especially when it's raining. I think that that kind of formed not the flood so much, but the creek itself. And I spent a lot of time watching the fish and and seeing what they do and understanding what the trout live in one place and the sunfish live in a different place. And so it it that, along with the summer trips to the beach, inspired me to go to school as a marine biologist.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Marine biologist?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yeah. I started in 1970, what was it, 74, and did three years and there was a recession and there were no jobs in marine biology, and I had borrowed money, and so I got nervous. But along the way, all my English profs said, I don't know why you want to do this science thing. You're way better at writing. And eventually they talked me into an English degree, but I have a certificate in ecological and environmental biology.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

From where? Where did you go to school? Penn State. Now, so how did you what did you do after that? You got this degree, and then what do you do with that degree?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Well, I I had two great profs. Well, I had lots of great profs at Penn State, but I had two that were special. One taught fiction writing, and his name was Phil Klass. His pen name was William Ten. And in the 1950s, he hung out and was with this group of writers that included Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. So he taught me fiction writing, and then the guy who taught me magazine writing, a guy named Rob Gannon, had been and until his dying day was a contributing editor to popular science. So he inspired me to try to be a freelance writer. And so I actually tried when I was a student and I got assignments. So I worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday magazine and did stuff for popular science with no help from my prof. But he did teach us how to write letters to the magazines and basically query letters that say this is the idea that I have. And by writing the letter the way you did, you could prove that you could write. And so I got assignments and then just kept doing that for a while.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Wow, that's a fascinating career.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

You did some underwater stuff. Yeah, well, along the way, when I was freelancing, I could never ever sell a story about the ocean. So I worked briefly for my hometown newspaper here in Bloomsburg. And some of the stories that I did when I was in my 20s, I whenever I had money, I went to Florida and went scuba diving. And I offered them, well, I said, well, I while I'm down there, I'll do some stories for you. I also did a story about how to learn to scuba dive as a first-person story. And the publisher was a scuba diver and he wanted to start a publication. So he eventually hired me to do the prototype, and I did that. And I thought that was going to be the end of it. And we went to New Orleans with a group from the newspaper to see if there was interest in the publication and that we can sell advertising into it. It went really well. I came back and said I'll be your editor. And I think I was like 27 or 28 years old, and I was the editor. Wow. We eventually grew to be the second largest publication of its kind in the world.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Amazing. Is it still being published today?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Uh Rodale Press bought it. And they folded it in, they folded our subscribers into their diving magazine, which they were trying to get off the ground and having trouble getting paid some paid subscriptions. And they eventually gave up to.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

So now, is there any good scuba diving spots in Bloomsburg?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

I've actually spent a little time scuba diving in Bloomsburg. Did you really under the bridge that goes to Fernville? And the few times, and mostly it's to test equipment and stuff. But if you're there and you do that, if there are people in the bridge, the first thing they ask you is, did somebody drown? Yeah. There are a couple of holes. Actually, Loyal Salt Creek has a big hole in it that's uh like 25 feet deep. Is it really? Yeah. So we we took when we built our staff, it was much easier to get people who are reporters and writers than it was to turn scuba divers into writers. So we turned writers into scuba divers. So we used to take people up there when they were, especially if they're gonna go out of town, like let's say in one case, one of one of the people that worked for me, she was a little iffy about diving. And she was going to the British Virgin Islands to dive, and she wanted to have a little more confidence. So we went up there and you know, went to the creek and you know, just to give her time in the water to to make her feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

So, Tim, I'm gonna tell you something about me. You'll never see me scuba diving. Okay, that's not my cup of tea. Snorkeling, yes. I love being in the water, I love being underwater. I've snorkeled in Hawaii, but I will not scuba dive. I am fearful of it. I think it'd be the coolest thing. I've watched too many National Geographic shows, and uh, you know, it's just very frightening when you see a shark in the water. I'm like, where do you go?

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah, I I did a lot of diving, and we saw sharks. I saw sharks twice, and they were nurse sharks, and nurse sharks don't have to keep swimming to they can sit on the bottom and and breathe unlike a lot of sharks that have to move to get water to go through their grills, and they were just laying on the bottom doing nothing. So, and I'm sure I mean I saw a lot of really cool stuff. Um, one thing I always wanted to get to see was an octopus, and I'm sure it was where they are, but they are so good at hiding that you just never see them. But we saw, like actually on one of the trips that I went on with the the Cousteaux, we were on the they they built a wind ship, a wind-powered ship, and it looks like it has two big smokestacks on it, but they're actually sails. And we were in the Sea of Cortez, and there were Cousteau divers in the water and stuff, and off in the distance, every now and then you'd see manta rays that leap out of the water and do a couple spins and go back into water. The first time I ever went diving, I was in the Florida Keys, and there's a place called John Penicamp State Park, and in it there's a huge statue of Jesus looking up at the surface. I think it's called Christ of the Abyss. Oh, really? And so typically when your your first I mean, I had been diving for years, but I wasn't certified. So I got certified and so I went on this first trip to the Keys, which I'd never been, and I went to the statue, and I was sort of heartbroken because I looked all over the place. There's no fish, you know. I expect all these colorful fish and everything. And at one point I turned around quickly and found there are about 50 fish following me. And the reason is the divers will like if they find a search sea urchin, they'll cut it up or they'll take stuff. One of the things that die that I don't know why fish like it, but that spray cheese in cans, like fish will fish will what? Yeah, some fish will let you actually spray that into the mouth till it literally comes out of their gills.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

What are we doing to our animals?

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Right. So but and that was a very different time.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

You know, now that was that was a place that was protected, and there wasn't much else protecting the keys. Now the entire keys are.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah. And and I'm proud of the fact that when we when we worked with underwater USA at the beginning, I don't think it was common for divers to respect the environment. I know that there was one guy from Harrisburg that he went down on a couple of those trips, and then he went on to Key West and he had a trailer on the back of his pickup truck, and he went out and filled it with coral and then took it back again all the time. So we, along with about nine or ten of the diving equipment manufacturers, really started to make a big push to try to make sure divers realize that if you keep doing that, you there isn't going to be anything to see under there. And so I think we were successful. It took a while. The diving manufacturers association resisted it, but eventually they came on board and it's a very different sport now. They're they're the their the uh phrase they came up was take only pictures, leave only bubbles.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Oh, that's a good phrase.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah, like so.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Well, we are so happy that nothing happened to you, Tim, when all the sharks and octopuses and things were going around. So we're we're happy you're here to tell your stories. In fact, we're gonna talk a little bit after the break about Earth Day. Now we know why you're in charge of Earth Day. I think we have some insight into your background and why Earth Day is so important to you. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back, and we'll talk about Earth Day, what's happening on campus, and why you should come up and participate. Stay tuned.

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SPEAKER_00 9:13

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Tim Part 2

SPEAKER_00 9:49

leaders. Welcome back, friends. I'm here with my special guest Tim Pelton. He's a civic engagement coordinator on campus. We got a big day coming up. It's Earth Day. It's on Wednesday, April 22nd, from 10 to 2, on the quad here at Bloomsburg. The theme this year, our planet, our future, let's take action. Can you tell us a little bit about Earth Day? How did it start on campus and why do we have it?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Well, actually, Earth Day started on the first Earth Day at at Bloomsburg.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Really?

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Um they they did some interesting things. They dug a big hole on upper campus and they buried a car.

unknown 10:24

Did they go?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Yeah. And and some other stuff. And Robert Dunkelberger, the archivist here, sent me some of the information from that. But it's something that happened from the very beginning. I'm not I have no way of knowing if over the years it was observed every year or not. But when I first came to the university, I was actually an American Vista volunteer. And I was working in the old solve office. And Gene Downing, the director of that office, was very, very much into green stuff. And so we got involved with a group on campus called Green Campus Initiative. And Green Campus Initiative did the stuff for Earth Day. Back in those days, we usually had an environmental club of some sort. And so those students worked with us to create Earth Day. And they were relatively small events. It would be some tables set up maybe outside the commons, or sometimes one of the things that Green Campus does is we sponsor a farmers market. And so we would have a spring market and the Earth Day stuff would be around the market. But over the years, Kara Schultz from Communication Studies came to me and she said that she had this class called event planning, and she would like to do Earth Day as the event. And so we started working on it that way. And we built up a pretty good operating system. And then Kara worked in the president's office instead, and Dr. Polo Hope took her place. And now she's done it with me. Oh, I'm not even sure how many years, but quite a few. And so over the years we've we've added and subtracted and we kind of got it down to a science. The thing that's changed now, though, is that class in Earth Day or event planning is only held every other year. So last year, for instance, there was no class, which that meant my department basically did most of it. And so my department, which is me and a couple of work study students and maybe an intern along with Dr. Hopeck did did everything to get it going. But it all went spectacularly well, mostly because Dr. Hopeck and I have done it enough times that we know what we're doing. But it did really work out well. And for the first time, as far as I know, we brought on campus a menagerie of animals. Did you really? Yeah, we had goats and we had the theme was about animals. So we had goats, we had uh baby chicks, and we had the the therapy dogs. We were supposed to have cats, they didn't make it. We were supposed to have some turtles and they didn't make it. But and then we had two alpacas. Oh, did you? Yeah, cool. And so I I gather that in some classes, people glanced out the window and were saying, like, I think there's llamas out on the pod.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

What happened? Did we start a farm on the pod here?

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah. So I think that's part of what made that one work as well. But we I mean, we started counting, I mean, we were probably maybe getting a hundred participants participants in Earth Day back when when it was small. And then when Dr. Schultz took over, we raised that number to about 300. We had a pretty good sense because April 22nd, for one reason or another, has a lot of rain chances. And so we had to go inside a couple of years. So we were able to have somebody with a clicker. So we we we went to like about 300 people back when she was doing it, and then it's grown every year. And we have no perfect way to know how many people were out on the quad last year, but probably I would I if I had a guess, I'd say about 600 people that's great.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

And so what happens? Like when I go to an Earth Day event on the quad, what will I expect to see? What I expect to hear?

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Well, we we actually have a giant playlist of songs that are about the environment, that some most of which, not surprisingly, are from the 70s, but the people keep writing about it. We have typically some sort of food. Over the years, it's it's evolved also to be more to call it earth-friendly. At first, we had things like donuts and wings that were donated by various restaurants around here, but we focus more on things that are environmentally more friendly, and we have things like organic bananas and apples, and then we often tie food to themes. Last year there were four themes that were based on biomes. And so, for instance, we had organic cactus-shaped lollipops, we we had grass-fed or organic beef sticks. Really? I'm trying to think what else. There was more stuff than that. But we really, really do try to to w well, especially last year, we actually even had signs that were up that explained what the four biomes were, why they were important, and that kind of stuff. So we try to have a as much of an educational component as we can, but we also focus on trying to make it fun. One of the reasons for that is we often have environmental films throughout the year that are sponsored by Green Campus Initiative. And some of them can be pretty bleak, you know, and and concerning. And so a long time ago, when Dr. Jeff Brunskill from the environmental department was involved, you know, he said, I think we really ought to make sure that birthday is something that's really focused more on hope and and celebrating the good things that we have and that sort of thing. So we try to make it that way. And we we invite, you know, all kinds of people. Sometimes they come and they have things for people to do. One year Roarbox farm market came and had little cups and stuff so that people could plant a plant in the cup and take it back to their rooms and and nurture it and that kind of stuff. But and there are there are coloring projects, there are, I'm trying to think of the other stuff, but a lot of activities and a lot of groups that come, for instance, the people that try to do their best to make sure streams and rivers are clean, people from those groups. I think Penn Futures was here one year and they're an environmental group in Pennsylvania, and some other people like that, along with people that have manufactured, say one year we had a group that manufactured things that they make a solar oven and you can actually bake things in. Nice. And they they left the students keep it. I don't know whatever happened to it, but they gave them the solar oven. So that's cool. There's those sorts of things. And we had some elaborate things too. We one year we had a group and I cannot remember their name right now, but they're a group that come on campus and they they work on art projects with students in various ways, and then on Earth Day they they create a giant sphere and they they carry it across campus and and then have a big celebration, you know, that sort of thing. So it's it it's been different. We've had movies in involved with it at times. And one of the nicest things and things that we've continued for several years now is the eco art contest. So we have a uh contest that students can enter and they they enter their art project and then it gets judged, and the the winner gets uh a gift card from Amazon for 150. Wow. And the second place gets a hundred and uh third place a fifty.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

So you can come out and win some money too.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah, as long as you as long as you have some I I'm not sure that you need to. I'm not excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

I'm not artistic.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Yeah, I'm probably I'm I'm I'm I don't think you have to be Michelangelo to win. Good. You know, uh it's a lot of it is more concept oriented than it is fine art.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

I can color really well. I'm a mean color, I can stay within those lines, Tim, like you would not believe.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Just use a lot of blue.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

A lot of blue? Yeah, a lot of blue and green. Blue and green. Yeah, and people like that on Earth, yeah, for sure. So any speakers or anything?

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Not at this point that I know of. The students are still working on this stuff. Good. Yeah. So I it's coming up. Yeah, and I I don't know all the details that that they've worked on, and I'm sure they're waiting for answers from people too. Yeah. So they're Tim has all the answers.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

So if you have if you have any questions out there, you just contact Tim. He will answer all your questions. We appreciate having Tim on the on the podcast today. He's full of information. He's done a lot, he's had a lot of great experiences. We're gonna come back after this quick break and do rapid fire questions with Tim and see some things about Bloomsburg that I'm kind of wondering. Since he is originally from Bloomsburg, he has keen insights on some of these questions that we have for him. So stay tuned. Come back and listen to Tim answer these rapid fire questions. Thanks.

Commercial 2

SPEAKER_00 19:00

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Tim Part 3

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Welcome back to the Campus and Character Podcast. I'm here with Tim Pelton. We're sharing some stories and talking about Earth Day. This last section, Tim, I don't know if you're ready for it. It's rapid fire questions. Alright, so just one word to answer all these questions. Alright, what's one word to describe you, besides a Steelers fan? We know you're a Steelers fan.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

And a pirates fan. And a pirates fan. And a Penguins fan. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

One word to describe Tim Pelton. Thank you. You're a traveler, scuba diver, and I'm opportunist. Opportunist. You don't know this about Tim, but he can actually see around rocks. It's a story you'll have to ask him next time you see him. I'm not going to get into those details here. Maybe that's for another show, but he can actually see around rocks. It's an amazing skill set.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

The trout topic.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yep, trout. What is your favorite thing about Bloomsburg?

SPEAKER_01 20:23

I've been asked this before. I love the changing of the seasons.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Oh, it's beautiful here. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Yeah, I've been to a lot of places, but I've never been to a place prettier than Pencil Lane.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

If you go up on upper campus and just look out on a fall day or, you know, even a winter day, it's just beautiful. You can see it for miles and miles and miles, and it's just it's breathtaking.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

I wouldn't want to live someplace where the seasons don't change.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

My favorite song. We know it's one of those earth day songs from the 70s. Just gotta pick one.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

It's probably if I had to pick pick just one. I mean I could pick one from very probably Rocket Man by Rocket Man by El John. And the reason is that song was based on a story that was in The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. Okay. And that story is about a kid whose father is a Rocket Man and he's like, you know, seeing his dad's work clothes and stuff, and and uh the stardust that's on the work clothes and stuff like that. I remember when I was a kid, my dad was uh cable splicing technician for the telephone company and he climbed telephone poles for a living. He was much taller than me, and I ended up with my maternal grandfather's physique, not my dad's, and his hair was about the color of yours. No way. Um, and I remember seeing his pole boots and how they smelled. And even when I was a junior in high school, I started wearing his old pole boots to school until it finally made my Achilles tendons so sore that I had to quit wearing them. So, you know, that story really stuck with me because it reminded me of my Dad, and then the song I didn't know for sure that it was, but eventually Bernie Toppin said that that story was the inspiration for the song. So every time I hear the song I think of my dad, and cool, you know, that's that's what cool story behind it.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

I love it. What's the best professional advice you have ever been given?

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Go out and have adventures.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

You've had a lot of them.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah, the the guy that taught me to do magazine writing, he said that all the time over and over, and he said, try this stuff, and I tried that stuff, and I actually was writing for magazines before I graduated as a student.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

So you're a good listener too. Who inspires you?

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Well, we've been talking about a lot of the the the underwater stuff, so Jacques Cousteau would probably come to mind first, but I just had the opportunity to play Benjamin Franklin in a play that we and Ben Franklin's a big hero of mine.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

So can we get some pictures of that?

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Can we yeah I have some? You have some? I need one. Yeah, I I have I have one with me and the uh county commissioner for Columbia County. We both shaved, he shaved off his mustache. I shaved off my beard, which I'd had since 1980.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

I noticed you didn't have your beard.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

My my friend Patty, I went to her house the night after the play, she wasn't feeling well enough to go to the play, and I rang the doorbell, and she told me later at first when she saw me, she didn't know who I was, and then I came in and she's looking at me, she goes, Did you do something to your teeth? I said, What? Close. Something's different. I said, I shaved my beard off. She went, Oh yeah. So yeah, I I and I took a picture of myself, sent it to my sister, and my sister says, Oh, you really look like Pop, my my paternal grandfather. So yeah, I guess I got more of his genes than I did my dad.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Yeah, 1980. That was historic. That was a relic.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Did you say that thing? Yeah, that I had to do that because I lost some magazine jobs because people didn't think I was old enough to.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

So and sent in the headshot, and I lost a couple of things. I thought you were lying. This guy's 12 years old. Yeah, right. So my baby face gave me away. But I learned early on, well, I I gotta grow a beard.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Well, will it come back? Will that be too to be determined as the beard turn?

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Even the hair on the top of my head that I shaved.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Best place for pizza in Bloomsburg.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Oh that's a tough one. See, I told you I was gonna be a tough one. Some really good ones. I know, there are. I mean, I'm I'm thinking that it's a tie between You need a pizza and that's a Moray.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Oh, okay. So you need a pizza has been mentioned before in this podcast. Probably ranked number one so far. Well, Tim, thanks so much for being here. Thanks for sharing your journey, your leadership insights, and everything that makes you Bloomsburg proud. Man, you've done so much stuff. We're so happy to have you here at the university. This is the Campus in Character Podcast. If you like this episode, recommend it to a friend. Give us a five-star review, and then we'll see you next time. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Tim.

Commercial 3

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Are you looking for a smart way to reach an engaged, media-savvy audience? Become a partner of the Campus in Character Podcast by sponsoring the show. Our listeners include students, faculty, alumni, and industry professionals who care about our campus, our student leaders, and the character that drives all of us. When you partner with us, your message is delivered in a trusted, authentic environment, not lost in the noise. Support the next generation of student leaders while growing your brand. Find out how to partner with us at campusandcharacterpodcast at gmail.com. That's campusandcharacterpodcast at gmail.com. And let's encourage the next generation of leaders.