No one can accuse regional coordinator Dirk Bannister of not being a team player. He spent his wedding anniversary - June 20th - at the Wainwright Stampede handing out CFLs and promoting Project Porchlight. (Don't feel too badly for his wife; they had a nice celebration the following evening.)

Here's what Dirk had to say about the event:

"Well, I survived an evening of Chuckwagons and Steers in Wainwright on Friday June 20th! We had 1850 bulbs to distribute and, with the help of the Canadian Forces [1] who were on security duty at the stands, we were able to give them all away by 11pm Friday evening! We could have given way twice as many!

"The place was wild. The party and midway went on until the wee hours of the morning (2am, I believe) and the rodeo went until 11pm Friday and all day Saturday. YEE HAW!

"CFB Wainwright [2] deserves a great big thank you. The troops were fantastic and extremely helpful. I haven't been called SIR so many times since I was an advisor to one of the high school Kiwanis [3] clubs! The Stampede staff and volunteers were also terrific. The folk who work the rodeos are really down to earth and REALLY in tune with the environmental message Porchlight is promoting.

"A rodeo isn't exactly up my alley, but after the success we had last weekend all I can say is: YAHOO! Anything to advance the cause of the bulb."