Connellsville native/LGBT advocate Trent Bauer gets $10,000 surprise on 'Ellen'

Sitting in the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” audience, Shippensburg University senior and Connellsville native Trent Bauer might have thought he'd had his moment of fame when he joined DJ tWitch for a segment of “White Men Can Dance.”

But there was more to come on the episode that aired Oct. 23. Bauer has a friend to thank for getting called up on stage to meet his idol and to receive a $10,000 check.

The gift came as a part of the “One Million Acts of Good” project, in which DeGeneres is partnering with Cheerios to spotlight people doing good in their communities. The project website says, “We're on a mission to create something good and make it go round.”

Bauer says he had no idea what was coming when DeGeneres invited him to join her. He and his friend, Shippensburg women's assistant basketball coach Stephanie Knauer, actually had applied for show tickets several times before without success.

What happened this time was that Knauer had written a letter to DeGeneres telling her what makes Bauer special.

A marketing and entrepreneurship major and 6-foot-10-inch former member of the Shippensburg basketball team, Bauer had undertaken a project to develop a center for the LGBTQ community on the central Pennsylvania campus.

“I'm still having a hard time processing what happened. Here I was thinking, this is my time to shine, dancing on national TV,” he says. “I actually forgot what I said. I had to go back and watch it again to see what I said.”

After he got seated with DeGeneres, he told her, “As a student of the LGBT community, I felt that there was an underserved lack of resources, so I wrote to them and asked if I could do some research to develop a center on campus, and we're kind of in the process of doing that, so I'm really excited.”

DeGeneres then told Bauer that she knew he was a “good guy” who was struggling to pay for college, and she wanted to reward him for his work with the center. That's when the oversized check came out as the camera panned to a beaming Knauer.

“Am I allowed to hug you?” Bauer asked DeGeneres.

DeGeneres had it right when she called Bauer a good guy. He says he'll use some of the $10,000 to pay bills, but with the bulk of the money, he wants to set up a scholarship for an LGBTQ student at Shippensburg and he wants to do something nice for about 20 friends who lent support in his efforts to establish the center.

“In my opinion, this money would be better served by going back into the community for the reason that I got it in the first place,” he says.

And meeting DeGeneres was a reward in itself.

“It was an honor to be in the presence of someone I've admired for so long, a role model and such a kind person,” he says.

Bauer says he's in the process of applying to the Peace Corps and hopes to have the Shippensburg center fully established by the time he graduates. Since the Ellen show aired, he says, a number of Shippensburg alumni have inquired about donating funds.

“Trent's overarching goal and enthusiasm of creating a Pride Center on campus is one that we wholeheartedly support,” says Matthew Shupp, Shippensburg assistant professor of counseling and co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Concerns Committee. “We are thrilled that his work was celebrated by Ellen DeGeneres in such a public way, allowing our initiatives to receive attention on the national stage.”

The comment about the Peace Corps came as a surprise to Bauer's parents, says his father William Bauer, a teacher at Connellsville Area High School, as did the response from friends and family to the show that was filmed Oct. 17 in California.

“It's been unbelievable, it really has. ‘Overwhelmed' is the word that describes it best,” William Bauer says. “Like my wife said, 10 minutes on TV and the response on social media has been overwhelming, and not one negative comment.

“With social media and the political climate nowadays, it's so easy to post those, and there hasn't been one.”

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-836-5750, smcmarlin@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shirley_trib.