Chris Melson gave his classification talk this week. The following was his message to our club. "Thanks for letting me take a couple of minutes to tell you more about myself. I became a member of this club a couple of months ago, and I can already see how special this group of people is. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for being so friendly and welcoming me to the club.
 

I was born in Phoenix Arizona, but my family moved to Loveland when I was five years old, so I sort of consider myself a native. I went to grade school and high school in Loveland, and was heavily involved in leadership at my church youth group along the way. It was mainly my church involvement that help me understand the importance of service at an early stage in life. I'll never forget the first mission trip I was part of in the ninth grade. We went to a border town in Mexico called Nuevo Laredo, and help build an orphanage I always took for granted how blessed I was until I went on that trip it's important that we stay aware of the people in our community who are less fortunate than us and do what we can to help.

After high school I went to front range community college and finish my degree in finance and accounting at Colorado State University. In college I met my wife Jess, and we now have two kids. For the past two years I worked as a loan officer and branch manager at first bank. It was a coworker who told me about this club and was my sponsor. The ideals and goals of this group really resonate with me personally and again I just want to say thanks for welcoming me to the club and I'm excited to help make a difference in our community."