Don Bender

Don Bender Retires

December 2005

Don BenderDon Bender, MVEA's mapping technician is calling it quits and going fishing.He was hired as MVEA's draftsman back in 1976.

Don is a Limon hometown boy.His family moved here from L.A. when he was just 7 years old.After graduating from Limon High School, he received a football scholarship to CSU, but after a year decided he really wanted a career in art.Working at a hospital in Denver to pay tuition and the bills, Don put himself through the Colorado Institute of Art.During this time, he married his high school sweetheart, Donna.After graduating, the couple moved to L.A. where Don worked as a commercial artist for the L.A. Times.After eight years, the two decided they really missed Colorado and moved back to the Limon area where Don worked as a carpenter until the job at MVEA opened up.

Until about seven years ago, the mapping at MVEA was done by hand.Don told us, "One of the biggest challenges in my years with MVEA was changing over to Auto CAD.There was not a lot of training available in the Limon area on the new system, so I pretty much taught myself."Don was able to take a few courses later on to help him out, but by then he had a pretty good handle on the system.Moving into an automated system was a big step for MVEA, but also a huge time saver.

Don has always been very active in the Limon community.He joined the volunteer fire department in 1977 and became a registered EMT by the next year.From 1983 to 1990, Don taught EMT training courses at Pikes Peak Community College.In 1991, he went through the State Health Board to start the Lincoln County Hospital EMT training program and continued to serve as the director until 1995.He then ran for the Lincoln County Coroner and held that position until he decided to move to the Falcon Operations Center and live in Falcon.In October 1999, Don was honored by the Emergency Medical Services Association of Colorado as the EMT Basic of the Year.He was nominated by his fellow volunteers and honored for 21 years of dedicated service.

On the eve of his retirement, Don says, "I'll really miss the people at Mountain View.
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Don and Donna also plan on lots of traveling and now Don has time for some of his favorite hobbies of woodworking and oil painting.The couple will also have a little more time to enjoy the grandchildren.

We all wish the very best for Don in his retirement and are very envious.MVEA thanks him for his years of service and dedication to the co-op and its members.Thank you and Congratulations!!!