Eclipse offers MCCC Agora staff lessons beyond the blackboard

Matthew Bird-Meyer/Special to The Monroe News
Updated ·3 min read
MCCC Agora reporters Destiny Gallina, left, and Mick Valentino review some shots on their camera while Ashley Atkins, assistant editor, uses protective glasses to view the emerging eclipse Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.
MCCC Agora reporters Destiny Gallina, left, and Mick Valentino review some shots on their camera while Ashley Atkins, assistant editor, uses protective glasses to view the emerging eclipse Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.

The story of the 2024 solar eclipse is not about the traffic.

At least not for me and the five MCCC students I drove nearly 70 miles Monday to East Harbor State Park just north of Sandusky. It was fairly easy-going getting there but a nightmare coming home.

No, this isn’t a story about the massive traffic jam that was northern Ohio and southeastern Michigan. This is about some students who, albeit haphazardly, planned a mission to witness totality and document what they experienced for their campus newspaper, the Agora.

Matthew Bird-Meyer
Matthew Bird-Meyer

It’s about the people they met at this idyllic peninsula that stretches out into Lake Erie near Ohio’s prairie marshes. And it’s about bonding and learning how to find cool stories as a natural phenomenon approached.

What better way to learn than to watch their adviser interview someone. Shortly after we arrived at the park, I noticed a few folks walking around with matching eclipse shirts. And it didn’t take long for me to find the Holts as they walked their two Siberian huskies to the Kona shaved ice truck.

I guess I’m a sucker for nerdy people doing nerdy things.

MCCC Agora reporters Destiny Gallina, left, and Mick Valentino, along with assistant editor Ashley Atkins, front, use protective glasses to view the emerging eclipse Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.
MCCC Agora reporters Destiny Gallina, left, and Mick Valentino, along with assistant editor Ashley Atkins, front, use protective glasses to view the emerging eclipse Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.

Their black T-shirts featured Snoopy zooming past the Death Star atop a TIE-fighter doghouse with Woodstock as his wingman in another TIE fighter. Written across the bottom was “I went to the Dark Side” and the date of the eclipse.

The couple, Rick and Carmella Holt, drove seven hours from New Freedom, Pennsylvania, to this little Ohio peninsula to witness the eclipse.

This was his second eclipse and her first. He and some buddies went to Tennessee for the 2017 lightshow. They initially drove to North Carolina but saw the cloudy weather forecast and hightailed it to Tennessee.

Rick, left, and Carmella Holt walk their Siberian huskies, Hallie and Rhyza, Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio. The couple drove seven hours from New Freedom, Pennsylvania, to view the eclipse.
Rick, left, and Carmella Holt walk their Siberian huskies, Hallie and Rhyza, Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio. The couple drove seven hours from New Freedom, Pennsylvania, to view the eclipse.

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Apparently, as they drove through Tennessee, they saw a large group of people in a cornfield and pulled off the road. There were some woods nearby and Rick said when darkness fell, the sounds changed. Nighttime sounds of insects replaced the normal daytime sounds.

That stuck with me after our interview. I started paying closer attention to the sounds of the tree swallows, song sparrows and red-winged blackbirds mixing with the sound of the water lapping onto the beach. I couldn’t wait to hear the sounds when totality hit.

MCCC Agora reporter Destiny Gallina, center, and Agora editor Maggie Sandefur, right, interview Brad LaMarca, patrol sergeant with the Danbury Township Police Department. The reporters were learning about the security that was in place for the event Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.
MCCC Agora reporter Destiny Gallina, center, and Agora editor Maggie Sandefur, right, interview Brad LaMarca, patrol sergeant with the Danbury Township Police Department. The reporters were learning about the security that was in place for the event Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.

Meanwhile, the Agora students were also finding some interesting people. They found two lovely ladies who came from Virginia and other folks from West Virginia and Illinois. I couldn’t believe the mix of people from so many different places.

We found an empty picnic table to park for the big show and took a little break. Just behind us was a group of people who came down from the Ann Arbor area. I couldn’t help but notice them messing around with their protective glasses, cutting off the lenses and placing them over their phone cameras. One of them had what looked like a homemade lens filter for their camera.

Kids roamed around the park, flying kites, playing catch and walking their dogs. A Coastguard helicopter buzzed the beach and we all waved at the guy crouching at the open door. And an officer roamed around snapping cellphone photos of people enjoying themselves.

The skyline over Lake Erie turns colors as totality occurs Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.
The skyline over Lake Erie turns colors as totality occurs Monday at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.

Soon, the moon covered the sun. The stars came out and the horizon turned a deep orange over the water. Somewhere nearby someone set off a large firework and we could hear the explosion. The birds were mostly silent as the water continued to lap at the beach.

But the sound that will stay with me is something our assistant editor, Ashley Atkins, said as we were packing to leave.

We had just returned from two student media conferences in New York City and Mount Pleasant, Michigan. We learned together, explored together and laughed a whole lot together. And now we just witnessed something otherworldly together.

“Guys, I’ve never experienced life like I have with you,” she said.

— Matthew Bird-Meyer is professor of journalism at Monroe County Community College. He can be reached at mbird-meyer@monroeccc.edu.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Eclipse offers MCCC Agora staff lessons beyond the blackboard