Wagner Rotary Club met on Wednesday March 16th with three guests. Michelle Juffer was a guest on behalf of Laurie Kidd, and two Senior students from WHS were present.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd wore several hats at the meeting. Her first duty was to offer up a prayer where she gave thanks for the food and fellowship and asked the Lord to be with us on our Lenten journey.

Rotarian Laurie then moved to the piano and asked the members to sing an old favorite “If You’re Happy” but she changed the words from “if you’re happy” to “you are a Rotarian” and inserted words about service in the second phrase. We failed miserably at using the right words, but we did clap our hands, stomp our feet, and yell Rotary at the appropriate moment. When Rotarian Laurie moves to the piano, she keeps us wondering what we will be doing next!

Rotarian Ken Cotton gave his membership minute on the importance of the 4-

Way Test in Rotary. He will be doing this every time we have seniors visiting as the club feels it is important to inform these young students what the Rotary organization is all about.

The Senior students introduced themselves: Rudy Ulrich’s parent is Rudolph Ulrich. Rudy plans to join the Marine Corp after graduation. Allen Fobb’s parents are his grandmother Nancy Cooke. Allen plans to attend Southeast Vocational School and enrolling in the plumbing program. He is already partnering with Bouza Construction which will allow him to compete for a Build Dakota scholarship. He hopes to come back to Wagner and work for Bouza Construction after his education. That is great news! Our community needs, plumbers, electricians, carpenters.

Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber launched his fines by assessing infractions from the last week: $3 to Linda Soukup for her phone humming during the meeting; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for the nice car he has sitting out front of the building and $2 to the Henke’s for having a Hybrid car. He challenged both parties to have a race. $2 to Gerrit Juffer for the USD girls and boys basketball teams in their respective brackets; $2 to Jeff Doom for conducting business at his table and $2 to Ken Cotton for asking Jeff for help; $1 to Amanda Bechen for being late to the meeting and another $2 for not having any friends to sit with her; $2 to Bryan Slaba for complaining about the brand of ketchup in the kitchen. Happy Fines: $5 from Rachel Woods for getting a new nephew baby; Graham Joseph from her brother Jon. $2 from Jerry Weber for the SDSU Boys and Girls basketball teams getting into the finals; $2 from Craig Krsnak for the phrase on Linda Soukup’s T-Shirt: “Buckle Up Buttercup”

Rachel got lucky and drew the winning ticket but did not do so well when she drew only an eight of spades.

Sec./Treasurer Craig Krsnak informed Rachel that she had just lost $427.00; and the attendance race just keeps widening. The Brunsing Team had one miss, but the Woods team had one makeup which leaves the totals at 17 misses for Brunsing and eleven misses for Woods.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd performed her last duty as a member for the March 16th meeting by hosting the program. Kidd showed a power point presentation on a cruise that she took last November with the Viking River Boat Cruise company on the Rhine River. It was a two-week cruise through the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Switzerland.

The pictures were beautiful, and Laurie explained what they did at each stop along the river. Amsterdam was their first stop, and they visited a cheese factory, a dairy cow barn, and nineteen historic windmills that are still active. People live in the quarters above the structures, and they are required to keep them in working order.

Their next stop was in Cologne, Germany where they toured the largest Gothic Cathedral. It had been restored since WWII. Laurie is a minister in the City of Wagner at the United Methodist Church, so the cathedral was of particular interest to her. Their next stop was at one of the Christmas markets which was open early due to so many tourists in Europe during the month of November. The decorations were beautiful, and she showed several slides of the interesting ways in which they decorate their buildings, homes, and streets.

They also toured the Bruhl Palace which had a painting on the ceiling which leads one to believe it is a dome but is really a flat painting. The Palace was huge, and every room and floor level was decorated in a different theme.

The Fortress at Koblenz, Germany was next on the agenda. It’s history dates back to the 4th Century. They also had a cable car ride down from the mountainside from the Fortress and toured a quaint little town by the name of Rudeseheim.

Speyer, Germany was a walking tour for the group. A very historic community with three cathedrals.

At Strasbourg France they took part in visiting the oldest market in Europe. The next stops were Breirsach, Germany; Colamar, Germany; and then on to Lucerne, Switzerland where they thoroughly enjoyed touring a Swiss Chocolate Factory and got to make some chocolates of their own to take with them.

Rotarian Kidd complemented the Viking River Boat company. The trip was very enjoyable. The company was organized and efficient and meals on the boat were delicious. She welcomes anyone who is interested to visit with her if they are interested in taking this cruise. She would be happy to provide you with any information you wish.