Don Bendell travels the country to speak and has spoken all over the United States. He won his first speech contest in 1966, as a high school senior attending an Ohio state convention for Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. Don was entered in the Extemporaneous Speech competition, was given a subject and five minutes to prepare then deliver a speech. He won the Ohio State Championship. He has been a member, for years, of the prestigious International Platform Association, which counts as its notables the likes of Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, many celebrities, and most former US Presidents. In 1992, he was the guest speaker in Kokomo, Indiana for a crowd of 12,000 at the nation's largest and oldest Vietnam veteran's convention. Although a former US Army Special Forces officer, he was flown across the United States by the US Marine Corps to be the featured Guest Speaker for the combined officers wives clubs for New River, Camp LeJeune, and Cherry Point Marine Bases. After speaking in Oklahoma City, he was made an Honorary Oklahomoan by the Oklahoma State Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin and state House of Representatives.