President Bryan Slaba welcomed the Wagner Rotarians to their weekly meeting with a loud ringing of the bell. Rotarian Laurie Kidd began a prayer by asking for a moment of silence for the country of Ukraine. Laurie asked for March birthdays which turned out to be Jamie Soukup and Craig Krsnak. The club sang Happy Birthday to the two members, and this was followed by a gusty singing of “Sing Out a Song to Rotary” and “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”

Ken Cotton explained World Understanding Month which is the Month of February and why it is special in the Rotary Calendar. February includes the anniversary of the very first meeting of Rotary which was held on February 23, 1905.

In designating World Understanding Month, the Rotary International board asks all Rotary clubs to plan programs for their weekly meetings and undertake special activities to emphasize understanding and good will as essential for world peace.

Many clubs arrange international speakers, invite youth exchange students and scholars from schools and universities to club meetings. Our Wagner club hosts members of the Senior Class of WHS so that they are exposed to a Rotary Club and its functions. Our Wagner Club also awards annual scholarships to Seniors that apply.

World Understanding Month is a chance for every club to pause, plan and promote the Fourth Avenue of Service—Rotary’s continued quest for goodwill peace and understanding among people of the world.

Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber approached the lectern with a very empty list of fines. $3 to Jeff Doom for answering a phone call at the table and squealing on another member that was trying to entrap him into answering his phone; $1 to Bill Frei for being the member that called Jeff Doom; $1 to Joe Stedronsky for wearing a really nice jogging jacket; and Jerry proceeded to talk about a booklet that was found in the Rotary Songbook which contained rules for fines from 1977 to 1978. Fines were only twenty-five cents then. Inflation has forced fines into $$$$$!

There was one happy Fine from Becky Brunsing who announced that she will become a grandmother in the fall. She prefers to be referred to as Grandma Beck. The Sergeant informed her that there will be all sorts of names for her.

Jerry Weber held the winning ticket for the Queen drawing. This was his second chance in two weeks. Everyone was happy when he drew the six of Diamonds. Tough Luck Jerry!

Rotarian Jeff Doom announced that he has received word from one of his sisters who has started a fund for people in Ukraine and if anyone is interested in a donation to contact him. The Doom Family is going to send a donation. The sister works with a Ukrainian, so the contact is a personal one for her.

The weekly program was given by Rotarian Scott McAdargh who gave an interesting autobiography of himself. Scott was born to Dale and Geri McAdaragh and spent his first 12 years in Chamberlain, SD. Scott has two brothers and two sisters and nine grandchildren. The family moved to Parkston and his father was working at Jack and Jill Grocery. Scott spent the rest of his school years in Parker, SD and participated in track and wrestling. He also milked cows for a farmer to earn money through his high school years.

Scott was married for 20 years. His oldest son Dustin was in the army and did a tour of duty. He joined the National Guard and did three more tours and retired after 30 years. He attended nursing school after that. His daughter Katrina has four children and works three jobs; his son Brett lives in North Carolina.

The McAdaragh family moved to Wagner in 1982 to help his Uncle Marcus King who had purchased the Wagner Grocery Store. In 1989 Scott’s family purchased the property from his uncle and built the store where it is located now. They could not remodel until a tenyear period had lapsed because the property had oil and gas storage at the location. (Formerly Farmers Coop) In 1999 they added on and that was the beginning of starting to scan groceries. The competition (Walmart, Shopko, etc.) were all scanning items by then.

Super Foods which was the new name, was always looking for new revenue and Scott stated that was when they decided to go into catering. They bought four roasters and the rest is history!

He has many happy memories of the people who worked for them through the years. He especially enjoys Labor Day when former employees come in to say hello and reminisce about their days working at the store. He shared a humorous story about a pair of male twins who were in sports. The rule at the store was that you could never leave until freight was completely unloaded and shelved. One day Scott tried to move a huge box that was in the way. It was so heavy he could not budge it. Upon opening said box it revealed that it was full of baby food jars! The twins did not want to miss practice at school so they would put the baby food jars in a large box to deal with later!

At one point they established a drive-thru for groceries. That ended when a couple could not agree on how to share some hard-won cash at the casino and the spouse drove the car into the building and pushed the wall about thirty feet into the store.

Overall, Scott enjoys what he does a great deal. In 2011 the store was sold to Aaron Cohn and Scott became the Manager of the store. Cohn was affiliated with AWG for a wholesale supplier. He stated that there are hardly any stores who carry the Shur Fine brand anymore.

When asked about challenges through the years Scott stated that the beginning of COVID presented them with a big challenge to stay in business and follow all the rules for safety of customers and employees. They are still dealing with some of the issues, but it is getting better. The biggest issue right now is getting some products in. He stated that there has been about a 7 or 8 percent increase in prices with inflation and he fears it will keep on going up.

Scott has been active in the Wagner community also. He was a member of the Fire Department for ten years and belonged to the Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce. He also has been a Rotarian for several years.

There was a discussion among members about self-scanning and Scott said he feared that eventually he would be forced to install it as the market keeps implementing it in business increasingly.

It was an interesting presentation.