Congratulations are in order for Paul Borchardt upon the 65th anniversary of Wonderland Park. Birthday cake will be part of the celebration that will be at the park on Friday, August 12 4:00.
Four new members were introduced which gives our club a 3% growth rate:
Travis Fanelli introduced Heather Conkle, classification Real Estate, Jeff Lester introduced Shelly Kearns, classification Banking Branch Manager, Lucy Hernandez introduced Veronica Lopez, classification Custom Homes, Lucy also introduced Valerie Soliz, classification Title Service Agency
Welcome new members, thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to serve our community and the world through Rotary! And speaking of new members, our Rotary Exchange Student Xianne Han from France arrived last week and is now enrolled to start school at Tascosa High. Plan to welcome her at the next meeting.
Daniel Martinez proposes another new member; Jerry Morales. Jerry is a General Law Attorney. Please advise Gina if you have questions about new member proposals.
Martin Birkenfeld gave the Holdup Report. A couple from Midland, Michigan were hosted by David Elizalde. Watch for the news story each week in the Amarillo Globe News.
A long time faithful Rotarian, Ed Harrell passed away this week. His service is Friday 2:00 First Presbyterian Church.
President David reminded us to take lots of pictures at Rotary meetings, events, or whenever we get together. Send those pictures via email to Cal Harriman who will post them on our Facebook page. Thank you for the reminder David, we have much to share.
Many thanks to our members who serve together to make our meetings fun, productive and timely:
David O'Dell - Presiding
Cal Harriman - Invocation
Daniel Martinez - National Anthem and Pledge
Cal Harriman- Greeter
Gail Bram - Greeter
Jeff Lester - Introductions
Madeline Frume - Program Chair
Greg Green - Raffle Ticket Sales
Paul Borchardt - 2 Tickets to Wonderland Park
Melvin Edes - Beef Jerky
Rocky Gafford - Papa Murphy's Pizza
Emily Nance, Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters presented the program. Emily has been in the nonprofit field for 29 years, the last 9 have been with BBBS. The program has been in existence since 1961 in Amarillo and their mission is to provide adult mentors for children who are in single parent or foster homes. Specifically their goal is to make life better for these children, to encourage them to have higher expectations and to reach their potential in school and in life. Most of the children have no family member who has ever attended college and a large percentage come from homes with single moms so the need for male mentors is imperative.
The program this week was presented by the Amarillo Police Department Interim Chief Ed Drain. Ed is on loan to Amarillo from the city of Plano, Texas. After serving in Iraq, in 2007 Ed retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel. He is currently a Rotarian in the Plano club and most recently held the position of community service chairman. Other community volunteerism includes serving on CASA and Salvation Army boards of directors.