President Elect Becky Brunsing rang the Rotary Bell in the absence of President Bryan Slaba to begin the September 15th meeting. There were no guests for the day, so Pastor Laurie was asked to offer up a prayer.

Pastor asked that all the club members keep Rotarian Amanda Bechen in their prayers due to the passing of her father Harold Steele; gave thanks for the blessings of the day and our fellowship together.

The topic of the Membership Minute given by Rotarian Ken Cotton was Paul Harris a president of a Rotary club? The answer was No. Was Paul Harris a president of Rotary international? The answer was yes.

There is an easy explanation to this apparent contradiction. Although Paul Harris was the founder and organizer of the first Rotary club in Chicago in 1904, the man selected to be the first president was one of the other founding members Silvester Schiele.

By the year 1910 there were sixteen Rotary clubs, which linked up as an organization called the National Association of Rotary Clubs. A couple of years later the name was changed to International Association of Rotary Clubs as Rotary was organized in Winnipeg, Canada, and then in England, Ireland, and Scotland. In 1922 the name was shortened to Rotary International

When the first organization of Rotary clubs was created in 1910, Paul Harris was selected as the first president. He served in this position for two years, from 1910 until 1912. Thus, the founder of the Rotary idea, who declined to be president of the first club became the first president of the worldwide organization, Rotary International.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd led the members in singing a new Rotary Song Be a Friend and in honor and memory of 9-11 everyone sang the Star-Spangled Banner.

Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber barely had time to eat his meal as he was busy writing in his notepad the following fines:

$1 to Jordan Weber who finally listened to his Dad and bought a Chevy pickup; $1 to Jeff for having all kinds of colored flags in his roadside ditch, $3 to Becky Brunsing for serving under three mayors in the City of Wagner; but he offered to pay the fine for her as she served him an extra big piece of dessert; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for driving his beautiful sports car to Rotary; $2 to the Frei’s for attending the State Fair; $2 to Bill Frei for wearing a Vikings shirt; $2 to Kathe Henke for not greeting Jerry at the door; $2 to Jamie Soukup for his matching green outfit; $2 to Scott for being too good and not having a fineable offense, $2 to Jeff for taking 2 phone calls during the meeting.

A Happy Fine of $10 was offered by Joe Stedronsky who announced he would be leaving on September 18th on the Midwest Honor Flight which he will be flying on to Washington, D.C. The club members gave him a standing ovation for this honor.

Gerrit Juffer offered a $5 Happy Fine for a friend of his from Bonesteel who is a member of the Motorcycle Cannonball Team Bonesteel. This group is going on a ride from Michigan to Padre Island, Texas. This is a friendly ride consisting of old motorcycles and many adventures. You can follow them on Facebook as it is an entertaining adventure for everyone. Just search for Motorcycle Cannonball Team Bonesteel.

Rotarian Linda Soukup finally got her chance to draw the Queen of Hearts but drew a two of Clubs. She was simply happy to at least have a chance to draw and was awarded a Lottery Ticket for her effort.

Becky Brunsing reported for Craig Krsnak Secretary-Treasurer that the attendance race is five misses for the Brunsing Team and six misses for the Woods team.

The first Monday Night Football winners are Michaela Koenig and Mary Jo Kuhlman.

There are two Rotarian Money Clips up for grabs turned in by Dave Isebrands.

Rotarian Bill Herrmann asked for volunteers to help throw aluminum cans into the trailer after the meeting.

The program for the day was given by Kathe Henke. She spoke about her life after WWII. It was named “the rest of the story” as she had spoken about being born in Germany the youngest of eight with five sisters and two brothers in a previous program. Her family lived in Cologne Germany after the war, and she passed around postcards that showed the wartime devastation of the city and then pictures after restoration. She studied to become an elementary schoolteacher in the cities of Bonn and Hannover.

In 1965 she and her family came to the United States to visit one of her brothers who had previously come to America and stayed. They came on a freighter rather than a passenger ship as her father had been a lifelong Navy man and found this to be a better mode of transportation than a cruise liner for his family.

Later, Kathe married someone who was living in the United Sates and came here to stay. They lived in California and Arkansas, where she and her husband owned a share in a pork production farm. Her husband was tragically killed in a car accident, and she sold her share in the business and moved to Rocky Mount, North Carolina where she pursued her master’s degree in education. She was active in the community where she met Jerry who had also lost his spouse. They were both Rotary members in the community.

Kathe retired in 2000 and she and Jerry made the decision to move to South Dakota. They have two children and seven grandchildren and could not be happier to be here.

The meeting adjourned with the recitation of the Rotary 4Way Test.