The day before Thanksgiving, November 24th the Wagner Rotary Club met for its weekly meeting. The President rang the bell and announced, “A Happy Thanksgiving to All.” Guests were introduced by Kathe Henke who brought her good friend Karen Schneider from Pickstown. Kathe had an ulterior motive however, Karen is an accomplished pianist, and we needed one for our singing portion of the program. Gerrit Juffer brought Frank Kloucek and Sharon Harr to the meeting as guests.

Pastor Bill Herrmann gave a blessing, and he gave up thanks for all the blessings we are enjoying this Thanksgiving season.

Song leader Kathe Henke announced the first song picked by Karen for this special day before Thanksgiving was “For the Beauty of the Earth.” The second song is usually a Rotary one and we were a little weak on this one. “Blue and Gold are our Colors.

Rotarian Ken Cotton had a little twist to his Membership Minute for the day. He asked all Rotarians to read the recent Rotary Magazine that all Rotarians receive monthly for their membership. He challenged all members to read the magazine as there will be a quiz on its contents next week at our regular meeting.

Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber headed for the podium with a full list again.

$5 to Bryan Slaba for selling himself the winning book last week and another $2 for a phone infraction at the last meeting $6 to Jeff Doom for having so many garages on his property and leaving his pickup sit outside

$2 to Scott McAdaragh for getting his mother to bail him out of trouble because he forgot the dessert $3 to Ken for not taking care of Jerry

Happy Fines were: $5 from Kathe Henke for Karen Schneider coming to Rotary with her and playing the piano

$20 from Patty Frei for her son Kolten shooting a 5x6 buck and her Daughter Callie shooting a 4x5 buck this past weekend

$5 from Jeff Doom because Karen played the piano so well

Ken Cotton was lucky enough to have his ticket drawn from the can. He was not lucky at finding the Queen of Hearts. He drew a five of Clubs.

Secretary/Treasurer Craig Krsnak announced that todays Queen of Hearts drawing was up to $184.00. The attendance race is still wide apart with the Brunsing Team at 6 total losses and the Woods Team with thirteen losses.

Football book winners were Dustin Hartley sold by Becky Brunsing and Kensley Duermier sold by Jamie Soukup

Rotarian Jordan Weber was the Program Chairman, and he introduced his two guests, Joe Sees and Jared Van Winkle. They are both physical therapists at the Wagner Community Hospital.

Joe gave a little background on himself. He grew up on a farm near Irene, South Dakota, graduated from USF College in Sioux Falls in 1998 and went to USD for his graduate degree. After graduation he began work in Yankton Avera Sacred Heart. In 2002 he came to Wagner to begin working here and has been here ever since. He likes the small-town life and resides in Avon, South Dakota with his wife and five children. His first assignments were at the Wagner Hospital, the IHS and the Armour Hospital where he saw about 20 to 30 patients in a weeks’ time. He now sees probably that many full-time patients in just the Wagner Hospital.

Jared comes from Tyndall, South Dakota, where he graduated from Bon Homme High School and Dakota Wesleyan University. He went to Physical Therapy School at Fargo, North Dakota for three years and began working in Wagner in 2018. Jared and Joe are both full time therapists.

They spoke briefly about the beginnings of physical therapy after World War I and how it really began to grow in volume after World War II. They do Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, treat post operative patients, work with patients on balance, back pain, and most recently are dealing with post COVID complications.

The remainder of the program consisted of answering a variety of questions about physical therapy and the aftereffects that patients are suffering from due to COVID. They both like the friendly atmosphere in Wagner and the hospital.