My wife, Jolanda, and I have lived in the Arlington area since 1968, and we couldn\u2019t imagine living anywhere else. Our home on Westador Drive in the Westador neighborhood in west Arlington, where we have lived since 1980, is filled with the joy and memories of family because we raised our children there.<\/p>\n
They all graduated from Arlington High School, and today our three children and six grandchildren live within 2 miles, so Arlington is truly our \u201cDream City,\u201d as it\u2019s known across Texas.<\/p>\n
While many think of Arlington because of its world-class entertainment and amusement facilities, we focus on the quality of life that we enjoy. Having been raised in Sweetwater, I was familiar with Arlington because my father was an electric engineer for the power company, and we traveled here often to visit grandparents in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n
The city had that small-town feel when I walked onto the University of Texas at Arlington campus in 1968, and I earned my bachelor of arts degree with a concentration in finance. I have a special place in my heart for Arlington because this is where I attended college and also where I met<\/p>\n
Jolanda on a blind date.<\/p>\n
It was love at first sight as we became engaged within three weeks and married six months later. In our family, Arlington is the love capital of Texas.<\/p>\n
I retired from my 25-year career in commercial real estate and investing in 2013 and joined the Rotary Club of Arlington in 2018. Now, eight years later, it\u2019s my pleasure to be president of our club. Our Rotary Club celebrated its 103rd birthday on June 9. We gained 10 new members this year to bring our membership total to 167.<\/p>\n
Arlington\u2019s residents love to serve, and our Rotary motto, \u201cservice above self,\u201d fits in perfectly with the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My favorite event of the year is Dancing with the Arlington Stars, which showcases community leaders each dancing with a professional partner to raise money for local nonprofits. This event, which took place on April 20 at Texas Live!, raised more than $300,000. Our three-year total is just over $850,000.<\/p>\n
The benefiting nonprofits have included Mission Arlington, Alliance for Children, and Arlington Urban Ministries, among others.<\/p>\n
Jolanda and I love this event because it offers fun, food and wholesome family entertainment. In a spirit of kindness, every dancer scores a perfect 10 from the judges.<\/p>\n
Well, there was one exception.<\/p>\n
One of our most touching moments occurred this spring when one of our dancers was a young man with Down syndrome, and the crowd enthusiastically cheered him on. The judges didn\u2019t each give him a score of 10. They each scored him and his partner a 100!<\/p>\n
We love how Arlington opens its arms and welcomes community volunteers, who give so much of their time to causes that help elevate the lives of people who need a hand up, not a handout. We find joy in volunteering for organizations such as The Salvation Army and partnering with the Meals of Hope event on MLK Day, which was started by a fifth<\/p>\n
grader at the Oakridge School.<\/p>\n
At a time when Arlington is on the world stage with the FIFA World Cup and earlier this year with the IndyCar Race, plus the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, the new National Medal of Honor Museum, and major concerts, I\u2019m most impressed with how many opportunities we share to enjoy our community.<\/p>\n
I have always appreciated that Arlington offers a sense of community through its neighborhoods. We enjoy a community-type atmosphere that binds our area together.<\/p>\n
Even with national restaurants everywhere, our favorites are Mac\u2019s (we love the gumbo, oso bucco and chicken fried steak!), J. Gilligan\u2019s Bar & Grill (how could you not love their Irish nachos?), and Corky\u2019s Brick Oven Pizzeria (home of the incredible Corky\u2019s Special Pizza), where we dine frequently with friends.<\/p>\n
Arlington has so much to offer in the way of community entertainment. At the top of the list is the Levitt Pavilion, which recently hosted Martha and the Vandellas in the DreamFest 2026 that brought our city\u2019s four Rotary clubs together.<\/p>\n
Other cultural opportunities include Theatre Arlington and the upcoming Shakespeare Live. And our park system, including River Legacy Park, is among the best in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are proud to live in Arlington, because it\u2019s more than just \u201cThe Great American Dream City,\u201d it\u2019s our dream city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Randy and Jolanda Hendricks have lived in Arlington since 1968. Randy is retired and is currently president of the Rotary Club of Arlington.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To tell the story of where you live, please send your essay to hello@fortworthreport.org and managing editor Mauro Diaz at mauro.diaz@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n West Arlington<\/p>\n Total population: 119,885 Age Education Race Click on the link to view the schools\u2019 Texas Education Agency ratings:<\/p>\n Arlington College and Career High School Wood Elementary This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/06\/13\/where-i-live-arlington-action-is-more-than-the-world-cup-for-randy-and-jolanda-hendricks\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=605847&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/06\/13\/where-i-live-arlington-action-is-more-than-the-world-cup-for-randy-and-jolanda-hendricks\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Bob Francis, Fort Worth Report June 13, 2026 My wife, Jolanda, and I have lived in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[150,116,118,117,3151],"class_list":["post-335215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-arlington","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-where-i-live"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Female: 50% | Male: 50%<\/p>\n
0-9: 11%
10-19: 13%
20-29: 16%
30-39: 14%
40-49: 13%
50-59: 10%
60-69: 10%
70-79: 8%
80 and older: 5%<\/p>\n
No degree: 14%
High school: 20%
Some college: 27%
Bachelor\u2019s degree: 18%
Post-graduate: 13%<\/p>\n
White: 38% | Black: 16% | Hispanic: 33% | Asian: 7% | Two or more: 5% | Other: 1%<\/p>\n
<\/a>Young Junior High
<\/a>Dunn Elementary
<\/a>Ditto Elementary
<\/a>Martin High School
<\/a>Miller Elementary
<\/a>Little Elementary
<\/a>Arlington Classics Academy \u2013 Arkansas Campus
<\/a>Arlington Classics Academy \u2013 Intermediate
<\/a>Bailey Junior High
<\/a>Duff Elementary
<\/a>Hill Elementary
<\/a>Short Elementary
<\/a>Key Elementary<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>Corey Fine Arts \/ Dual Language Academy
<\/a>Dunbar High School
<\/a>Metro Opportunity
<\/a>Jean McClung Middle School
<\/a>East Handley Elementary
<\/a>Maudrie Walton Elementary
<\/a>Sunrise \u2013 McMillan Elementary
<\/a>Bill J. Elliott Elementary<\/a><\/p>\n