Northern Maine Community College student star in Reality TV Show

  PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – For 20-year-old Tyler Pelletier of Millinocket, just the suggestion that he is becoming a bit of a national television star is cause enough to make him blush. The second-year student in the diesel hydraulics technology program at Northern Maine Community College has red cheeks quite often lately as more of his fellow students and instructors tune in to the Discovery Channel’s nationally televised weekly series “American Loggers,” to catch a glimpse of the otherwise shy young man make his TV debut.
    Pelletier, a third-generation member of the Millinocket-based Gerald Pelletier forest harvesting and logging operation which is chronicled on the program, has earned a newfound celebrity status on the NMCC campus since a recent episode followed him working on a road crew for his family business hauling gravel in the famed North Maine Woods.
“I didn’t want to be on camera and didn’t think much of it at the time. I actually tried to run from it as much as I could, but they really wanted to focus on the younger generation, so I let them come along with me,” said Pelletier. “Since that show first aired earlier this month, people – especially here on campus – have come up to me and said, ‘Hey, I saw you on TV!’ or ‘Nice job.’ I get teased a bit, but I just brush it off.”
Self-admittedly a most unlikely star, Pelletier is much more at home in the diesel hydraulics lab at NMCC working under the tutelage of instructor Robert Rice on the engine of a large piece of machinery than on the silver screen, but he’s taking the new experience in stride.
“If the camera crew comes along it can take us twice as long to get a job done,” said Pelletier. “They have you wait until they set up the equipment and often ask you to do things all over again so they can get the right shot.”
During a recent college break, cameras again followed him for a soon-to-be-aired episode of “Loggers.” This time the crew traveled to the St. John Valley, where Pelletier and some of his uncles and cousins attended a customer appreciation event thrown by Fort Kent-based Daigle and Houghton, a heavy equipment sales and service business.
Segments were taped at the Slybrook ATV Club in Soldier Pond, where the group ate, as well as at the Northern Door Inn in Fort Kent, where they spent the night. A crew even jumped on a snowmobile and filmed the Pelletiers out on the trails for a ride.
The weekend outing was a departure from the material aired on “Loggers” to this point, which has focused on the long days and hard work put in by the Pelletiers and their crew. Although he doesn’t seek out the opportunity to be featured, Pelletier is quick to acknowledge the benefits of having cameras capture what his family does and the national showcase it provides for the wood harvesting industry, as well as for the beautiful Katahdin Forest and North Maine Woods regions.
“In the past, we’ve had some negative press about what we do. It’s nice to see positive press and show what we do and how a small town and family pull together to get the job done. It’s given us the opportunity to take more pride in what we do,” said Pelletier. “There would be no way that the company would be where it is today without my grandfather, Gerald, and this show lets us show that to the country.”
Whether the opportunity to be showcased on national television will continue into the future for Tyler Pelletier and his family will be determined by other families across the country. An initial 10 episodes of “American Loggers” has been ordered by the Discovery Channel and the show’s ratings will determine whether more will be produced.
The future is also on Pelletier’s mind as he prepares for graduation from NMCC in just over a month. He plans to return to the family business to work for the summer, but is uncertain where his degree and life will take him in the fall.
“It’s a big job working for the family business,” he said. “It’s a possibility that I will stay working in the woods, but I’d like to keep my options open and see where my future takes me.”
(“American Loggers” airs at 10 p.m. Fridays on the Discovery Channel).