Wes Knapp, past Club president and chief financial officer for Western Builders, kicked off a series of programs highlighting Rotarians' businesses. Western Builders is one of the leading commercial construction companies in Amarillo. Wes told us of some of the big projects WB is doing, including construction of a new terminal at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport. He talked of big jobs and small jobs, such as the new patio at BL Bistro. There has been plenty of school construction throughout the Panhandle. Western Builders adheres to the Rotary motto of "Service Above Self," Wes said, explaining that the vast majority of the company's business comes from repeat customers. Thanks for the great program, Wes.

And our ranks keep expanding. We welcomed back a familiar face to the Rotary Club of Amarillo: Dale Elliott, president of All-State Security, was introduced by Jeff Lester as our newest member. Dale joins us under the classification of Security. Welcome back, Dale.

Bill Archinal and his wife, Karen, were hosts at our Rotary Hold-Up and Bill declared that their guests "were the nicest couple ever, in the history of Hold-Up." They are Don Medina and Trish Blue, who live in Half Moon Bay, Calif. Don is a retired mechanic for Wonder Bread and Trish is a secretary. The Archinals accompanied the lucky couple to a night of dinner at Country Barn, a showing of the musical "Texas," and the couple spent the night at the Ambassador Hotel. Well done, Bill and Karen.

Red Badgers, listen up: To shed the Red Badge and earn a Blue Badge, you need to do a number of tasks. They are: 1 -- attend a new member orientation meeting; 2 -- serve as leader for two head table functions; 3 -- function as greeter for three club meetings; 4 -- host visiting Rotarians at your business; 5 -- display "Object of Rotary" and the "Four Way Test" at your business; 6 -- attend two other clubs' meetings; 7 -- demonstrate the use of Rotary's Official Directory to your mentor; 8 -- present a mini-classification talk to the club; 9 -- bring a guest to a club meeting; 10 -- attend a Board of Directors meeting; 11 -- participate in one hands-on Rotary project; 12 -- have perfect attendance for one month; 13 -- secure a committee assignment and meet the chairperson; 14 -- and attend a district function.

A big thanks as always go to the following Rotary Club members for their help with this week's meeting: John Early for presiding; Jess Ghormley for leading us in song; Renee Wilson for playing the piano; Bob Dunstan for her invocation; Bob Russell for introducing guests and visiting Rotarians; Steve Clark for selling drawing tickets; and Dale Bippus for greeting us. And thanks also go to Corinna Isbell for serving as program chair for July.