Minnkota Power Cooperative Inc. donated a bucket truck to the San Pedro Sacatepequez, San Marcos, municipal utility in Guatemala as part of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) International Foundation program.

Minnkota, a regional generation and transmission cooperative serving eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, announced its donation back in June.

The bucket truck, a 1991 General Motors C70 Kodiak valued at about $10,000, will help the municipal recover from a recent earthquake. The Kodiak has about 110,000 miles on it, according to Minnkota.

Local officials held a ceremony Aug. 15 in San Pedro to celebrate the truck’s arrival. Getting the truck to NRECA took several weeks. After traveling more than 2,100 miles from Minnkota’s offices Grand Forks to Port Everglades near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., it caught a three-day ride on a ship to a port in Guatemala. The cooperative posted updates on its Facebook page throughout the truck’s travel. Minnkota also posted on its Facebook page that Sean Metzger will travel to Guatemala this month to help the San Pedro Sacatepéquez municipal learn how to run and maintain the bucket truck.

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