OCTOBER 22, 20104 NEWS

Sanders: 30 years of dedicated service to MHCCBy Yuca KosugiThe Advocate

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Mike Sanders chats with several people as he makes his rounds delivering mail around the MHCC campus.

“What are we going to do when you’re gone?” said Lynn Horn, Visual Arts Department adminis-trative assistant.

“We will defi nitely miss you,” said Laurie Miller, Executive Assistant to the Vice President. Sanders grins and replies with a “thanks,” or jokingly said, “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.”

After 30 years of working at Mt. Hood Commu-nity College, most recently in the mailroom, Sand-ers is retiring.

Sanders, 54, lives alone in his Sellwood apart-ment with his longtime companion Princess. He excitedly pulled out his cell phone to show a picture of a grey, long-haired cat gazing out a window.

Seven or eight years ago, a neighbor gave Prin-cess, now 14, to Sanders because she was not get-ting along with the other cats, and also because she spent so much time at Sanders’ place anyway.

“She’s always ready to snuggle when I come home,” he said, which he added has been especially nice in recent days since he has been busy with work.

He loves public transit, and sometimes he rides the light rail for fun. He knows the transit system in the three counties like the back of his hand. Ask Sanders about a new highway that opened up across the country, and he can tell you all about it, said his mother, Barbara Roberts.

“I learned how to read a map before I learned how to read,” said Sanders.

Early retirementRetiring wasn’t high on Sanders’s list of things

to do yet. In fact, he was looking forward to work-ing at least a few more years at this long-held job.

But an e-mail about changes in the college re-tirement benefi ts was sent out Oct. 5, which forced Sanders to choose between receiving the benefi ts and retiring by November, or keep working and pay his way through retirement from his his own pocket.

The latter wasn’t an option.“I only had 14 days to decide,” said Sanders. “I

signed my life away on Tuesday (Oct. 12).”The change in retirement benefi ts came from

budget shortages. Sanders and Iain Graalum, the mail service lead, were both a bit disgruntled by the suddenness.

“It was unexpected,” said Roberts. “Change is very hard for him.”

She said she was sad that he was retiring so early, but understands it is because of the strain from budget cuts.

Asked about his plans after retiring, Sanders gave a weary smile and said, “I have not fi gured that out yet.”

Despite the sudden turn in his life, Sanders looks forward to spending more time with Princess and possibly traveling with his mother.

“I’m going to treat this next year as time off,” said Sanders. “I am just going to take it as it lies and see what happens.”

A reception for Sanders is being held today from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the district board room, where refreshments will be served. Roberts, to her dis-may, is not able to attend because she is on a busi-ness trip to Philadelphia.

“But then it’s all about cleaning out the locker and turning in the keys at the end of the day,” said Sanders.

Growing up with autismSanders was born March 4, 1956, in San Benito,

Texas, to Barbara and Frank Sanders. “The same week Elvis came out with ‘Heart-

break Hotel’,” Sanders said.The family was based in southern Texas because

his father was in the military, but moved back to Portland when Sanders was about eight months old. He attended school in the Parkrose area.

“When Mike was young, they referred to chil-dren like him as ‘disturbed children’,” said Roberts. They didn’t even have the term “autism,” she said.

Because of the lack of support and opportunities for disabled individuals, the only option Roberts was presented with was to institutionalize Sand-ers. But she knew that these institutions did not give the best care and so she dove into politics to reform rights for disabled people. Roberts eventu-ally became Oregon governor (1991-1995), the only woman ever elected to that offi ce..

“The best governor in the state of Oregon – the best governor in any state, for that matter,” said Graalum. “She’s too nice of a lady to go into politics again.”

Some schools rejected Sanders for his behavior at fi rst, but he was able to go to school after special education programs began. Roberts also worked on integrating disabled children into regular classes instead of isolating them in special education.

While attending Parkrose High School, Sand-ers met Marilyn Pitts, who was his social studies teacher in one of the integrated classes. He gradu-ated in 1975.

“Each morning he would bring in the newspaper and wanted to talk about current events and poli-tics,” Pitts recalled.

Pitts is now the president of Part-Time Facul-ty Association at MHCC, and says that she often chats with Sanders when he comes around to de-liver mail to her.

“I always believed that he could do so much more than what the experts told us,” said Roberts.

“Mother always used to say, ‘He marches to a different drummer, but he’s a part of the band,’” said Sanders.

Working at MHCCAfter school, he started searching for jobs just

like any other graduate. People suggested food ser-vices. But working under pressure and time is challenging for people with autism, explained Roberts. Sanders had several job failures be-fore landing work at MHCC in September 1980.

“This was a rare opportunity,” said Rob-erts.

Frank Roberts, Sanders’s stepfather, was one of the original board members of MHCC when it opened. Barbara Roberts was on the board when Sanders was hired.

“The college was so patient with him,” she said.

He started in the print shop but moved around to different departments until he settled in the mailroom.

On a typical day, Sanders wakes at six and leaves his house by 7:30 a.m. He takes a bus to Lloyd Center, where he hops on the MAX to the Gresham Tran-sit Center. Another bus connection takes him to campus.

This commute takes a little over an hour on average, and he does this every weekday, to and from work.

“When I fi rst started they didn’t have a MAX,” recalls Sanders.

The MHCC mailroom handles about two million pieces of mail a year. Sanders alone delivers 135 cases of paper and 354

cases of graphics per month. Graphics are all the syllabi, handouts, tests and quizzes that are used in the classrooms.

One case is 10 reams of paper, which is about 40 pounds, and a ream is 5,000 pieces of paper. After the math, it adds up to more than 20 million pieces of paper per month.

“I gather things together and get it where it needs to go,” said Sanders. “I’m on my feet for the majority of the day.”

Graalum started working with Sanders 17 years ago when Graalum worked in the mailroom and Sanders rotated work in between the mail-room, bookstore, and print shop. Sanders was per-manently placed in the mail-room alongside Graalum 13 years ago.

“We’ve never had any issues,” said Graalum. “We work as a well-oiled machine and get it all done.”

Sanders claims that he can tell the mood Graalum is in just by the music he is playing.

“If it’s the Grateful Dead, he’s cool,” as-sured Sanders.

The best part of the job, Sanders said, “is that we some-how manage to get everything to everybody and at the end of the day, we’re like ‘That’s what we’re here for’.”

Mike Sanders, a mailroom clerk, delivers mail around the campus on one of his a� ernoon rounds. Sanders is retiring a� er 30 years of service at MHCC.Photo by Yuca Kosugi/ The Advocate