Almost 16 years to the day of her first day working at Central Wisconsin Electric Cooperative (CWEC), Brenda Mazemke has retired from CWEC. Mazemke began her career at CWEC on May 1, 2009, and retired May 2 of this year.
In 2009, Mazemke started as a member relations assistant to Mark Forseth, who was the vice-president of Member Relations at the time.
“When he retired, I became the manager of Member Relations,” Mazemke said. “I’ve pretty much worked in this area the entire 16 years that I’ve been here.”
Prior to working at CWEC, Mazemke worked at F+W Publications in Iola, but things were changing in the department she worked in, so she pursued a position with CWEC.
While Mazemke said it was a hard decision to retire, it was also an easy decision. After all, her husband, Mike, retired in January after not running for another term as the register of deeds for Waupaca County.
“With him retired, we both knew we wanted to retire so we could enjoy traveling and our grandkids and life a little bit,” Mazemke said. “That kind of made it a little easier. But it’s scary.”
Mazemke said she will miss helping the communities that CWEC serves, because of the strong principle ethics that the cooperative has helping out communities and helping its members.”
“I really enjoy that, and I love working with the members in the communities and helping them and seeing their appreciation for everything we do for them,” she said. “I think that I’ll miss that the most, and of course, the employees and being around everyone here.”
During her time at CWEC, Mazemke said she enjoyed interacting with CWEC members. This included helping with the expansion of the CWEC Member Appreciation Breakfast when it moved from Iola to the new headquarters in Rosholt. This expansion saw the introduction of crafters setting up at the breakfast, and the addition of activities for kids to do during the breakfast.
The move to Rosholt also allowed the co-op to expand its Toys for Tots campaign because of the additional space at the new headquarters.
“We were able to call the schools and work with the guidance counselors and open that program up, and help different organizations, churches, and Waupaca County get toys for kids,” Mazemke said. “That’s been fun.”
Helping area school districts is one of the memories that Mazemke said will stick with her. Mazemke helped CWEC launch the STEAM grant program. Under this program school districts in the CWEC service territory can apply for STEAM grant funds for items related to science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.
“That was a cool addition for something we can do for our schools,” Mazemke said. “There’s so many opportunities there to help our local schools and I encourage them to take advantage of that.”
In retirement, Mazemke said she and her husband plan to travel, play more golf, and spend more time with family, including their six grandkids.
“Just doing whatever we want, when we want,” she said.
She added that she also wants to spend more time helping her parents.
“They’re getting up there in age and just to be able to go over there and help them, that is really what I want to do, just be there for my mom and dad,” she said. “That will be nice.”