Environmentalists show their commitment over the air

Before they were married, before they even knew each other, Mark DiFeliciantonio and his wife, Pat, showed up separately at Belmont Plateau for the first Earth Day in April 1970. Imbued with the spirit of the Age of Aquarius, they took seriously the slogan "Think globally, act locally."

After earning a degree in civil engineering and teaching high school, Mark worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, enforcing clean-water rules and managing cleanup at Superfund sites. "It's where I got my environmental chops," he says.

Today, he's an underwriter for an environmental insurance company. He and Pat live in Strafford, where they show their respect for the planet by doing little things that, collectively, can make a big difference.

Pat totes groceries home in a canvas bag and tries to buy local produce. They have a water saver on the shower, a timer on the thermostat. They try to minimize trash. They keep chemicals off their lawn and are setting up a compost pile. They drive two compact Volvos that sip fuel.

But these days, the show of commitment that yields them the most pride and joy is exactly that - a show.

A television show, that is, on the local public-access cable channel that has earned plaudits for, as Pat puts it, "letting people know what impact they can have by doing simple little things."

The show originated indirectly because of their involvement in politics. Pat, 56, a financial specialist at the nonprofit Devereux Foundation, which serves children and adults with special needs, has done fund-raising for the local Democratic committee. Mark, 59, was the first Democrat elected to a four-year term as a Tredyffrin Township supervisor. (He's a lame duck whose term expires this year.)

The game of politics is not all sweetness and light. So last year, Pat sought an alternative outlet for her civic energy.

"I was tired of the negativity of politics. I told Mark, let's do something positive. Instead of preaching to people about the environment, let's highlight people . . . who are already doing something positive."

The couple's first idea was to hold an environmental forum. But Mark nixed the notion. All the same people would show up, the usual do-gooder crowd.

Then Pat had a brighter idea: A local TV show. It would be a way to reach all sorts of folks, including the untutored and unconverted, and because the shows are broadcast repeatedly, the message would continue to ripple out.

Thus was born Leaning Green in Tredyffrin. The show debuted in September 2008, and so far the DiFeliciantonios have produced five programs. It is broadcast in Tredyffrin and Easttown Townships on Comcast Channel 2 and Verizon FiOS Channel 24. Each half-hour program contains three segments. Interspersed are short "eco-facts" (sample: idling cars produce about 20 times more pollution than moving cars).

The show has featured the township library's green roof, a musician who promotes an environmental ethic, a doctor who is a master composter, a coffee company that uses some of its profits to build wells in Africa, middle schoolers who are trying to suppress an invasive crayfish in Valley Creek, neighbors who raise honey bees and donate proceeds from the harvested honey to cancer research, a campaign to build more sidewalks so children can walk to school, and the restoration of Crabby Creek.

"We're trying to spotlight successes," says Mark, "to show that caring for the environment can be fun, interesting, and meaningful."

Adds Pat: "It's good for people to know what their neighbors are doing that's positive and green."

Mark hosts "Leaning Green" with Susan Lehman, a friend and fellow township resident with an acting background. Confessed HGTV addicts, the DiFeliciantonios try to mimic the snappy style of that channel's sophisticated fare.

Their son, Terry, 18, a Drexel University computer science whiz, helps with graphics and editing. Another son, Christopher, 21, an architecture major at the University of Pennsylvania, often serves as cameraman. Tom Smith, a classical guitarist from Ridley Park, supplies the show's theme and background music.

Gene Donahue, 56, the Comcast studio manager for Tredyffrin, lauds the program's "incredible production values," which improve, he says, with each new show.

"There's such an ecological base out here that I'm sure viewership is high," Donahue says. "People really want to watch and learn about this stuff, especially old hippies who grew up in the '60s and '70s and still have a little of the save-the-world mentality."

Township officials are pleased.

"It's always a positive thing when citizens get involved and try to educate the public about ideas and issues they care deeply about," says Supervisor Judy DiFilippo. "Mark and Pat are very strong supporters of good things for the environment, and I applaud that."

The show is nonpartisan. Laughs Mark: "It's too sunny to be controversial."

Any township resident is welcome to create a show, says Comcast's Donahue, who describes local-access cable TV as "a soapbox for the common guy."

The only rules: The content can't be commercial, and aspiring TV producers must undergo 12 hours of training in basic production and editing.

The township's current cable menu includes another show on enlightened environmental practice, "Green Neighborhoods," as well as shows that offer local history, advice about marriage and family, stories about the abilities of the supposedly disabled, and social and topical commentary (the latter's title: "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.")

The DiFeliciantonios shoot on weekends, edit in the evenings. Each half-hour show requires about 25 hours of work, all a joyous labor of love.

Saving the world is nice, but mainly, says Pat, "we're just having some fun, meeting interesting people, and making new friends."