We’re featuring the unique contributions of Coloradans aging well in – and for – their community. Ask yourself, and the people in their life, the questions we ask Don: Describe your childhood home, using all five senses. Describe a difficult time you had in your life, who and what helped? If money were no object, describe something you would do!
Don Kovaleski serves on the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging’s Regional Advisory Council, he lives in Falcon, Colorado and following a military career, he continues to dedicate his skills and endless energy to issues that matter.
Additionally, a thank you to the Beacon Senior News with Rhonda Wray as she provides the latest stories in the News.
Aging with Altitude is recorded in the Pikes Peak region with a focus on topics of aging interest across the country. We talk about both the everyday and novel needs and approaches to age with altitude – whether you’re in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida or Leadville, Colorado. The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is the producer.
BEACON Senior News is a proud sponsor/partner for this podcast. BEACON Senior News empowers Colorado seniors with inspiring local stories, timely coverage of senior issues, health and travel features, retirement and financial guidance, senior expos and local resources — all presented in a fun, engaging way that helps older adults lead happier, healthier lives. Catch all the news at: beaconseniornews.com/
Transcript
MELISSA MARTS:
Welcome to the first of two episodes celebrating the unique community contribution of Coloradoans over 60. Aging with Altitude is featuring these trailblazers as we acknowledge August 21st, National Senior Citizens Day.
VOICEOVER:
This is a Studio 809 podcast. Engage.
MARTS:
Today I have a quick thank you for the critical sponsorship and support from Studio 809 and the Beacon Senior News. It’s August, the Beacon Senior News is out.
Normally I have Rhonda Ray, one of the managing editors here in the studio with me, but she is off having all kinds of adventures of her own. So I don’t have Rhonda with me today. But I want to say again, thank you to the Beacon Senior News. Encourage people to pick up their August edition all around the Pikes Peak region, Pueblo and Fremont counties, and see what the latest stories and events are for the month of August. Thank you again, Beacon Senior News.
Thank you listeners for liking, sharing, and subscribing to Aging with Altitude.
Welcome to Aging with Altitude, a podcast providing information, advice, and resources for seniors, families, and caregivers to help you live your best life, courtesy of the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging.
We’re coming to you from the Studio 809 Community Podcast Studio at the Next Us, a professional cooperative environment for small businesses in downtown Colorado Springs. I’m your host, Melissa Marts, with the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments’ Area Agency on Aging.
Today, my guest is Don Kovaleski. I first met Don when he reached out to the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging. He thought this was going to be a great idea to host the first ever senior resource fair for the eastern plains of our area. And we were thrilled to head out east and meet him at a little Starbucks with a bunch of his cohorts who all wanted to make this happen and bring resources and ideas to the community.
But that said, Don has done a lot of stuff. And when I thought about interesting people over 60, not only did I think about Dave Gardner, who helps run Studio 809, but I thought about some other folks too. And so I wanted to invite Don to the studio today and just talk a little bit about many things that you’re doing.
But I would really like for you to just start with this idea to have a senior resource fair on the eastern plains and tell our listeners how you came up with that idea. And it’s been two years now that you’ve hosted it. And you don’t, of course, do it alone, but I know you’re the one who reached out to us.
So thank you. Tell us about that fair and how that came to be.
DON KOVALESKI:
Hey, good morning, Melissa. It all started where I went to some other location and found that there were resources for seniors. And then me living in Falcon, I said, I don’t see any of that around our area.
And I know we have a lot of seniors that are living there that need information because a lot of them don’t want to travel 20 or 30 minutes west into Colorado Springs. So we wanted to try to bring the resources to them so they wouldn’t have to go out to Colorado Springs. And then I said, we need to have some event.
And that’s when I reached out to Pikes Peak area and the Falcon Senior Services Center in Falcon to see what we can do. So met Melissa and Jody and came up with some ideas and just started that way. They gave me some ideas who to reach out to, to bring out to the eastern plains.
MARTS:
All these different agencies and people. Yeah.
KOVALESKI:
There are quite a few of them that the eastern plains, Falcon, Calhan, Black Forest don’t know about. So I said, this would be a great idea to start this up. So last year, 2025, I had the first one at a school in Falcon and invited 15 agencies to come out and show off what they have.
And Pikes Peak area came out there as well as a lot of other agencies. And it was a slow turnout, but a lot of people really loved it and there’s a lot of resources available. So then we just had one this past weekend and we had 23 resources come out.
So it was a lot more available to our seniors to explore.
MARTS:
I know that I am really impressed with the level of sponsorship and engagement that you get from other businesses out in the area to support this effort. And you have some musicians who are playing pretty much the whole time on the stage, which is really just a nice touch in the background to hear these guys play. Tell me a little bit about the musicians and who those folks are. I’m just curious.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. It’s a person by the name of Troy. It’s been in the Rhodes studios and he goes out to various senior agencies around here and he plays for free to all…Independence Center, Silver Key, all kind of locations around here. And he just plays for free for them because he enjoys the seniors just sitting and listening to him.
And how I found him was that with The Exchange Club of Falcon, we had to look for music for some school at Calhan and learn that he refurbishes guitars. So we went and got some guitars from him at a very cheap price to give to the Calhan schools.
And then when we started talking to him about that, he told us about what he does, singing to a group and that’s how I knew to reach out to him. And he’s done it for his past two years and it’s great.
MARTS:
Yeah. He’s really good. He does a nice job and I’m glad you guys found each other.
You’ve mentioned The Exchange Club of Falcon a couple of times. What is The Exchange Club of Falcon?
KOVALESKI:
The Exchange Club of Falcon is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization service club that was founded back in 1911.
MARTS:
1911?
KOVAELSKI:
1911.
MARTS:
Does Falcon even exist in 1911?
KOVALESKI:
No, Falcon didn’t. But the national exchange club started back there.
MARTS:
Oh, I see.
KOVALESKI:
With about 10 guys that say, Hey, we need to help the community out here. And so let’s find a way to exchange ideas. So when he said, let’s find a way to exchange ideas, they said, let’s call it the exchange club.
So from 1911 on, The Exchange Club started growing and growing. Now it’s out of Ohio. It’s a national exchange club with over 700 clubs.
There are four areas of concern that we deal with. The main one is child abuse prevention, which is a national project.
MARTS:
Okay.
KOVALESKI:
And then it’s community service, Americanism, and youth projects. So what we do is we try to reach out to the community and serve them in some way. And most of it is by fundraising to give back to these nonprofits who share our same ideals.
MARTS:
Lovely. Is the exchange club a military based kind of thing? Are most of the members in that retired military?
Because you have a retired military background. Is that right?
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. Retired 22 years, Air Force.
MARTS:
Okay. And so is the exchange club more of a military group of folks that come together or is it everybody?
KOVAELSKI:
No, it’s not. It’s just a bunch of community members that really care about their community. So it’s not just military.
MARTS:
Okay.
KOVALESKI:
But Americanism is just one of the areas.
MARTS:
Yeah.
KOVALESKI:
Especially here in Colorado Springs. There are a lot of veterans and…
MARTS:
Yeah.
KOVALESKI:
Quite a few.
MARTS:
Yeah.
KOVALESKI:
Quite a few.
MARTS:
Yeah. And I feel like at the fair last weekend, I saw lots of people wearing hats that acknowledged different parts of the military they were a part of. I didn’t know if they were a part of the exchange club or just people coming, but there were quite a few folks sporting their retired military hats.
KOVALESKI:
One of our members is a veteran and he likes going around talking about his service time in Vietnam. But we just try to do anything and everything we can for veterans, especially in this area.
MARTS:
Yeah. Yeah. See? All these things. Don’s life is a little bit like a little onion. It kind of peels back and you just keep getting some things that Don has done.
And so in addition to the senior fair, you’re involved in a craft fair for the Falcon area. Correct? Tell listeners a little bit more about this piece that happens out in Falcon.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah, this October is our 17th annual Falcon Craft Fair, and it is a major fundraising area that we invite vendors from all around. They come from Cañon City, up in Northern Denver, and everywhere to come out. And we just charge the booth fees and all of the booth fees go back to partnering agencies that we support.
So we make some good money at it. It’s a little bit of work putting it together.
MARTS:
A little bit of work.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. Not a little bit.
MARTS:
For any listeners who have put on events, we all know it’s more than a little bit.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah it is, yeah it is.
MARTS:
Thank you, Don. But a little bit of work, yeah.
KOVALESKI:
So we have over 80. And when I first started doing it three years ago, we had 50 vendors come, but now we have over 80. So word is just getting out.
And it’s a pretty good way to meet people and let these vendors and crafters show off their stuff to local area.
MARTS:
Yeah. So what was happening in your life three years ago that you decided, oh, I like this fair. I think I want to get more involved in the organizing of it.
What was going on and how did that come to be that you became part of the organizing side?
KOVALESKI:
The Exchange Club of Falcon, I joined them, my wife and I, about six years ago, that was right when COVID was starting. And the craft fair had stopped for about three years because people just couldn’t go out and do anything.
And then the person that was leading the craft fair resigned from the club for health reasons. So no one else knew how to do it. And I said, hey, I go to maybe one craft fair every five years. I could probably try something like this with no experience.
MARTS:
Yeah. Oh my. And there you are.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. But being in the military, that’s what you learn to do. You just learn to adapt and just go for it. You just do it.
MARTS:
Yeah. Thank you for that reminder and tie in as well. Because these two episodes that I have that we’re recording in recognition of National Senior Citizens Day in August, I also want to encourage our listeners.
I’m going to ask three questions of you, Don, here over the rest of the show. And I’m hoping that our listeners will use these questions as an opportunity to talk with their family, friends, maybe ask something that you haven’t asked before and get to know somebody a little better.
You’ve mentioned that you have a military background and your military background encouraged you to just jump in and take action, which is great. I want to take you way back to when you were a kid.
KOVALESKI:
Oh.
MARTS:
Now, and how old are you now?
KOVALESKI:
68.
MARTS:
68. Okay. So good. You’re over that 60 number.
But I’m going to take you all the way back to when you were a kid and tell us where you grew up because I don’t know if it’s in Colorado or not. So where did you grow up? And tell us a little bit about your childhood home and do it by talking about your five senses as well.
KOVALESKI:
Well, I’m from Newcastle, Delaware, very small state back East and grew up in a little home, two bedroom home for a family of six where we started out. And the home was just a little one story, two bedroom. And it was really solemn. There was no crime in the area. We walked to school and it was probably about a half a mile walk.
MARTS:
Dirt road, paved road?
KOVALESKI:
Paved road.
MARTS:
Okay.
KOVALESKI:
No issues at all. No worries about anyone picking you up or taking you out there.
MARTS:
Yeah.
KOVALESKI:
And my mom was a stay-at-home mom. So she cooked a lot, great cook. So we really loved that. And I just remember being outside and playing all the time. We didn’t have cell phones back then.
MARTS:
No kidding.
KOVALESKI:
So we just played outside. I made go-karts out of wood, and I don’t know where I got the pieces, but I did that. And then back then we used to walk railroad tracks, which you don’t do that anymore. But we walked railroad tracks and went fishing at the little ponds off the tracks there.
MARTS:
Yeah.
KOVALESKI:
And life was so easy back then. You didn’t have to worry about anything.
MARTS:
And so when you think about that, thinking about your five senses, what do you see? You’ve talked about walking the tracks and fishing, but describe a little bit more of what you see with your eyes.
KOVALESKI:
What I see with my eyes back then is just a little two lane road. And we would just go outside and play on the road.
MARTS:
And what are you feeling on your skin? How does it feel? Is it humid? Is it dry? Is it hot? Cold? What are you feeling?
KOVALESKI:
I don’t know. I never felt cold back then. Never felt cold.
MARTS:
But never overly hot either. What about smells? What kind of smells might you remember from back in your Delaware days?
KOVALESKI:
Back there, lilac bushes. My mom loved lilac bushes. Every time we went outside, always smelled lilac.
MARTS:
Yeah. Yeah. And what about taste? You said your mom was a good cook. What about taste?
KOVALESKI:
About taste. She made a great meatloaf.
MARTS:
Oh, good.
KOVALESKI:
And I love meatloaf to this day. And I’m always trying to go back to how hers tasted, but she had great meatloaf. With a small family, meatloaf is the way to go.
MARTS:
Yeah. I’m a fan of meatloaf too. And it’s fun to go to a restaurant that’s serving meatloaf.
And then the last sense would be hearing. What do you hear when you go back to that memory of your childhood home?
KOVALESKI:
What I hear is just going outside and hearing, like, catching a ball because we would be out in the street playing and just throw the ball around.
MARTS:
In a leather mitt or in a bare hand?
KOVALESKI:
No, leather mitt. Yeah, leather mitt.
MARTS:
Very cool.
KOVALESKI:
My best friend, and unfortunately, I don’t stay in contact with them, but we were best friends for many years.
MARTS:
Yeah. And so did you go elementary, junior high, high school all in that same town, or did you end up moving at some point?
KOVALESKI:
No. My dad was a blue collar ironworker, so he didn’t have to travel. We just stayed in that same town through all my school years.
MARTS:
And so then you found yourself in the military, and now you live in Falcon. And have you always lived in more suburban-y, more rural areas? Does that bring you back to your childhood?
Or have you, in the military, you probably have lived everywhere, but then-
KOVALESKI:
A few places.
MARTS:
What drew you to Falcon, to live in Falcon outside of Colorado Springs?
KOVALESKI:
I was stationed in Europe for about 10 years, and then in the military, you get reassigned. So I got reassigned to Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base in Colorado, and been there for two years, went somewhere back in Europe, and then I was coded, because of the specialty that I had in communications, I had to come back to Colorado so they wouldn’t have to retrain me.
So I just came back to Colorado, which I had no problem with because Colorado was beautiful back then. This is back in the 80s. And just came back out and just stuck around.
MARTS:
Yeah.
KOVALESKI:
Stuck around, retired out here.
MARTS:
Yep. And here you are.
KOVAELSKI:
Yeah, because Delaware doesn’t have a lot. It’s a small place. And I just like adventuring in the mountains.
MARTS:
Yeah. It’s nice to be able to, not go too far, and you’re off in the mountains. Or in Colorado, you could be off in the plains too, doing some things on the flatlands too.
KOVALESKI:
Yes.
MARTS:
So depending on what you want to be doing. Yeah. So describe a difficult thing you’ve had to do in your life at some point.
We’ve all had some challenges. We’ve all had something that kind of rocked our boats a little bit that we had to get through. Something that was a challenge that you weren’t quite expecting to come upon.
KOVALESKI:
The most difficult thing in life is being away from my real family.
MARTS:
Oh, okay. Even at 68, it’s going to bring some tears out. I’m sorry. Yep. We’re going to have a moment. Thanks for sharing it.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. So being in the military, I go back home now and I feel like a guest.
MARTS:
Oh, wow.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. I don’t feel like I’m part of the family anymore. So it’s tough.
I do maintain connections, but I just don’t have that family time there with them anymore. But I have my family out here, my two boys. That’s all I need.
MARTS:
Yeah. And that’s making it… And now it sheds a little light on how you are so connected to your community too, that you reach out and find those other relationships and build that too.
KOVALESKI:
Oh, yeah. Everybody needs help. So just do what we can.
MARTS:
Yeah. And I appreciate too, again, to your go-to spirit when I met you and you talked about doing the senior fair out in Falcon. And then I introduced the Regional Advisory Council with the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging, and you had an interest in being a part of that.
And so you joined our Regional Advisory Council to help lead that through. So you have definitely shared your experiences and your skills on so many levels. Thank you.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah.
MARTS:
I’m glad you have your sons here and family here and feel for you reaching out to others too. So what services do you think are really important for people who are over 60? What makes life better for somebody who’s in retirement and needs to just kind of keep doing good things? What do we need?
KOVAELSKI:
Well, the seniors, hopefully many seniors can still drive, but if they can’t drive, that is a problem. You don’t want them to be stuck in their home without social contact and they just got to get out and do stuff. And one of the main things is transportation and a place for them to go and mingle with fellow seniors.
That’s the problem we’re having out in the Eastern Plains in the Falcon area. There’s no real major transportation services to bring the elderly out and about.
And a senior center as well. We don’t have one real close, but I’m working that right now to try to get one in a local area.
MARTS:
Yeah. I appreciate all those efforts and encourage to keep going at it because Falcon and Peyton and Calhan and Ellicott, they’re all out there and people are all wanting to see more possibilities to be doing some things.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. And they don’t want to be stuck in the house the whole time. They really don’t.
MARTS:
No. And so then another, this is my third interesting question, in honor of kind of appreciating the histories that people have and what they’ve been through. If money were no object, now I’m going to caveat that because I feel as I ask you this question, you’ve just done whatever you wanted to do anyway, regardless of whether there was money. But if money were no object, describe something that you would do. What would you do?
KOVALESKI:
I love to explore and travel. So I would say travel would be a big thing, but I already do that right now. But if money were no object, it’d be great to have one, big, happy location for everyone to go and just build something.
MARTS:
I knew that was coming.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. Just build something for everyone to come and enjoy and hang out, because life’s short.
MARTS:
Yeah. I appreciate knowing that with the Exchange Club of Falcon, the work you guys do to raise money to then share with other nonprofits. And again, realizing that if money were no object, you would be thinking, can we build a cool place to bring people and have them come and have them build stuff too?
KOVALESKI:
Oh, yeah.
MARTS:
Yeah. Do you make stuff and sell at the craft fair that you are a part of, or do you just help coordinate it?
KOVALESKI:
No, I just help coordinate bringing inventors.
MARTS:
Okay. And then as we come to a close here, because you help coordinate the craft fair, you travel all over the world. What is something really fun that you’ve purchased lately?
You have been traveling and you go to these craft fairs too. So is there something fun that you’ve bought in the last six months that you’re like, wow, I’m glad I got that?
KOVALESKI:
Yeah…
MARTS:
No, just about experiences, just going out, being with people. That’s been the thing.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah. Yeah. I’m not one for buying a lot of things. I’m pretty practical. I don’t buy things just to buy things, but it’s something I have to buy and use.
MARTS:
Oh, that’s helpful.
KOVALESKI:
Yeah.
MARTS:
Because if I go to these craft fairs, I am buying something from almost every vendor, partly because I feel like I want to support local art. And then it’s like, oh, it’s just so hard. So sometimes I have to stay away from those places because I just want to support everybody.
But just curious how you’re able to have some self-control and it sounds like you do. So that’s good. And maybe it’s because you had that little tiny house in Delaware with-
KOVALESKI:
Four kids.
MARTS:
Mom and dad. So you had to live in a little space. Thank you very much for sharing your life history a little bit and what brought you to Colorado and how you’ve realized that you just want to jump in and take action when it’s there.
And we really appreciate all the work you have done in the region. And how did people find out about the Exchange Club of Falcon? How did people find out about the upcoming craft fair?
KOVALESKI:
We are the Exchange Club of Falcon. We have a Facebook page and a website.
MARTS:
Okay.
KOVALESKI:
And then we advertise over that and over the social groups and we have an Instagram account too. So just look up Exchange Club of Falcon because anything we do, and it’s not just fundraisers that we do, we do other events out in the community.
MARTS:
Yeah, right.
KOVALESKI:
And it’s all posted on our Facebook page.
MARTS:
Great. Thank you, Don.
KOVALESKI:
Thank you, Melissa.
MARTS:
Appreciate your time today and just taking a moment in August to recognize and appreciate the histories of people who are over 60. So take care.
That’s the show. Thanks to all of you for being with us today. Aging with Altitude is created by the Pikes Peak Area Council of Government’s Area Agency on Aging. Visit us at ppacg.org and click on aging services for more information about the programs of the area agency on aging.
DAVE GARDNER:
Hi, I’m Dave Gardner, Chief Podcast Wrangler at Studio 809 Podcasts. We’re a collective of podcasters here in the Pikes Peak region committed to having local residents who are better informed and more engaged.
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