This Week in

The March 6th Wagner Rotary Club meeting began with our new member Pastor Bill Herrmann offering up the blessing. There was only one guest today in contrast with last week’s larger attendance. Dr. Koenig introduced another medical student who is on rotation at WCMH, Kate Waligoske. The members did very well singing an old Rotary favorite “Smile”.

Rotarian Amanda Bechen was taking care of the Sergeant at Arms duties. Members were somewhat relaxed with Sergeant Krsnak absent and learned quickly that Bechen was listening very carefully as we ate our meal. Yours truly drew the lucky ticket for a chance at drawing the Queen of Hearts, but I soon realized it wasn’t my day as I only drew a 9 of “Shovels” (Spades) which is Kelsey Dooms favorite description of cards.

Patty Frei gave the Treasury report: There were 4 misses on the Henke Team and only 1 miss on the Frei Team which totaled to 23 misses for the Henkes and only 16 for the Frei Team. Rotarian Frei passed out the Raffle tickets to club members. Program assignments are Dave Isebrands next week on the 13th, Francis Doom on the 20th; and Gerrit Juffer on the 27th. Rotarian Roger Wiltz announced that he would be in Wagner for a few weeks and would be available for a program if anyone needed one.

President Jerry Weber reminded the group that a date needs to be set for New Member Orientation and Roger Wiltz offered to help Francis as they are both former District Governors. Rotarian Linda Soukup offered up her house for a meeting location. New member Rotary plaques were given to Dana Woods and a Paul Harris award for four stones was awarded to Jeff Doom. Weber also announced a notification of a Rotary sponsored Youth Leadership Conference in Nebraska. Rotarians were asked to try and recruit some youth to attend this conference courtesy of the Wagner Rotary. There is also an essay contest on the Rotary 4 Way Test. Roger Wiltz volunteered to go to the school and provide the details on the contest there.

Rotarian Scott McAdargh introduced his program, Jamie Soukup, currently the new Pioneer Seed Company Representative in Wagner. Jamie recently purchased the old Haar Implement building as it provided a perfect location right next to Highway 46/50. The building has a new roof, new insulation, storage, parts room and a new meeting room for seminars and training sessions to be held in the future. Jamie is not new to the Pioneer brand. He was farming and selling seed at the same time for several years but decided to concentrate his efforts to providing a Pioneer full service facilicity in the town of Wagner. Jamie and his wife and three children live six miles south of Wagner, but the family is excited about this new venture in town.

Jamie went to USF for one year and played football, then transferred to USD-Vermillion, for a major in Political Science and a minor in business. He is a life long resident of the Wagner Community and his wife Charlene teaches in the WCS.

Jamie described his full-service offerings which include treating the seed, helping the farmer plan what seed he needs, delivery service as well as providing the options of crop protection with spray and chemicals. He believes he can offer farmers the luxury of knowing that he will always be “there” at the business. If he is out on a call, he will have someone present at the facility who can get in touch with him. Pioneer also offers farm management, computerized information on crops, and also has a financial feature for the products that they sell. The corn seed that arrives is already treated and guaranteed to germinate. He will also be able to treat soybean seed.

Soukup calls his business SoCo and he plans on offering training sessions and continuing education to farmers. Farming is slowly evolving into a very technical and exact science. He looks forward to bringing all these advantages to the local farming community. He invites everyone to stop in and look around and visit with him.

Wagner Rotary wishes the best to Jamie Soukup on his new enterprise.