Hillsdale graduate bares all -- almost
ASHLAND - Heath Baldner's mother had no problem with her son posing for a campus beefcake calendar.
"I always thought he had the cutest little buns around," Susan Baldner said. "If he wants to flaunt them, let him."
Baldner, a 1995 graduate of Hillsdale High School, is a 22year-old student at The Ohio State University. He also is Mr. September in this year's edition of the Campus Men® Calendar.
Wearing nothing more than a slight smile, Baldner is holding a pair of jeans over a strategic area in his calendar photo.
"I thought it turned out very well," he said. "It was tastefully done. He (photographer Sean Ashbrook) lets you pick the pose you want."
Ashbrook approached Baldner on the street to see if he wanted to be part of the project. Understandably, Baldner was hesitant.
"It was really my first quarter at Columbus, and I've heard about people trying to rip you off," he said. "I waited three or four weeks before I called him back."
Baldner, who was not paid for the photo shoot, has turned the project into a moneymaker. He bought calendars from the publisher at wholesale price and has been selling them for $12. Baldner started with 112 calendars.
"I have maybe 10 to 15 left," he said. "I've sold a lot to friends back in Ashland. I've sold maybe 10 to 20 back here (at OSU)."
Baldner's fraternity brothers in Delta Theta Sigma probably didn't buy many calendars.
"I get harassed quite a bit," Baldner said. "I don't know if they were jealous, but all in all, I think they were pretty cool about it."
His family members were better than cool.
"I have given quite a few of the calendars away as Christmas presents," Susan Baldner said. "We've had a lot of fun with it."
That fun has extended to the older members of the family. Susan said she gave her 73-yearold mother four or five calendars.
"In about a week, she called back for a dozen more," she said.
Susan said she was a bit more reluctant to show the calendar to her great-aunt, who is 85.
"(But) she was immediately trying to find a place to put it up," Susan said.
The calendar features brief bios on each man. Baldner is described as a "rugged individualist." A Sagittarius, Baldner is "not afraid to get his hands (or jeans) dirty."
Baldner said he keeps in shape by riding horses and lifting weights. He is majoring in biochemistry and hopes to work for a pharmaceutical company when he graduates next year.
Originally published Feb. 3, 2000. Story © Mansfield News Journal. This text is exactly as published.
