RIFLE – Jay Rickstrew is waiting for a big order of red, white and blue decorations – and lots of corkboard, too.

Rickstrew, the president of Rifle’s Alpine Bank branch, at 100 E. 4th St., is preparing for the bank’s upcoming Wall of Fame, a wall designated in the bank’s waiting area just off the lobby, for anyone to post a photo of current or past military personnel.

And Rickstrew plans to decorate the bank in patriotic colors to show general support for troops overseas. He expects to have the corkboard in place and the decorations up by the end of this week.

“We’ve got the space,” Rickstrew said of the bank’s lobby area, “and at a marketing meeting, we started talking about how many local people have husbands, sons and friends who have been called up. We wanted to create a place for the community to honor vets or those currently serving.”

Rickstrew is expecting to see photos tacked up on the waiting room’s designated corkboard – he said it’s best to bring in copies of photos since the bank can’t guarantee the photos will be returned – but he isn’t limiting contributions to only pictures.

“We’re going to leave it up to the community,” he said. “Mostly, we want this to be a place to come and look, to have a cup of coffee.”

The Wall of Fame will accompany another Alpine Bank project supporting U.S. troops at the Rifle branch. The bank is collecting supplies to be shipped overseas to troops currently involved in the Iraqi conflict.

So far, according to Rickstrew, the Rifle branch is the only Alpine Bank involved in creating a Wall of Fame. He said he wouldn’t be surprised to see other walls honoring vets and active duty military appear at other Alpine Banks.

Contact Alpine Bank in Rifle at 625-9610 for more information.