President-Elect Becky Brunsing rang the bell with a “soft” ring (compared to President Bryan Slaba) on Wednesday, June 8th in Slaba’s absence. Our two Rotarian Pastors were also absent, so Brunsing asked Rotarian Ken Cotton to offer a prayer which he did quite nicely.

Amanda Bechen introduced guests. Maesa Dvorak is working part time at Bechen & Company and Jerry Seiner was Bechen’s program for the day.

Rotarian Kathe Henke introduced Wanda Weber to play the piano in the absence of our pianist. Songs were “America” and “Sing Rotarians.” We will be losing our resident pianist Rotarian/Pastor Laurie Kidd at the end of June, and we are all wondering how we will manage without her. Thanks for helping Wanda!

Rotarian Ken Cotton delivered a Membership Minute on Club Singing: Harry Ruggles was the fifth man to join Paul Harris in the conversations which led to the formation of the first Rotary club in Chicago in 1905. Harry was a person who enjoyed singing and this was a popular activity at the turn of the century. At an early meeting of the fledgling group Harry jumped on a chair and urged everyone to join him in a song. Group singing soon became a traditional part of each Rotary meeting.

The custom spread to many of the clubs in the United States and is still a popular fellowship activity in the Rotary meetings of such diverse countries as Australia, Japan, Nigeria, New Zealand, and Canada. Some clubs sing a national song as the formal opening of the meeting. Social singing is seldom found in the Rotary clubs in Europe, South America, and Asia.

Next up was Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber who gleefully handed out the following fines: $10.00 to Jeff Doom for his latest fishing trip and $2 for correcting Kathe Henke’s pronunciation of “brome grass”. She’s a native German! Give her a break! $2 to Ken Cotton for brown-nosing the Sergeant; $3 to Jordan Weber for borrowing his Dad’s bolt cutter because he keeps locking himself out; $1 to Amanda Bechen for using her guests phone, another $1 for not sitting by her program person; and another $1 for her math issues; $10.00 to Jamie Soukup for his weeks long absences; $2 to Bill Frei for getting a haircut and losing his curls; $2 to Scott McAdaragh for being a Mr. Mouse so he doesn’t get fined; $5 to Becky Brunsing for not listening to the Sergeant; $2 fine to the Building Committee as the lighting is going out more every week; and a warning to Linda Soukup for wearing her Buck Up Buttercup T shirt again.

Happy Fines were $10.00 from Kathe Henke for coming back from a wonderful vacation to visit relatives and $10.00 from Jerry Henke because he is so happy she is back.

Rotarian Amanda introduced her program, Jerry Seiner who is the Charles Mix County Veterans Affairs officer. Jerry gave several updates concerning veterans.

The first update was about the latest news recently that the VA was considering closing our Wagner Veterans Clinic. In 2018 Congress passed a law directing the Veterans Affairs to conduct a review to assess all clinics and hospitals. They conducted their review and in 2021 gave a report recommending that all community-based outreach clinics be closed including the one in Wagner. The reason they gave for this was that there were not enough patients.

Jerry conducted a survey of the past several years and found that the Sioux Falls VA clinic had no decline. The Wagner clinic shows thirty-six patients in 2018, 44 in 2019, and 37 in 2020. This amounted to a small enough decrease to question their decision to close these clinics. He encouraged everyone to contact Senator Rounds who has introduced a bill to eliminate this commission and pledge their support. This report will change everything for veterans in South Dakota and make it difficult for them to travel long distances to Rapid City and Sioux Falls for treatment. Sioux Falls is the medical center for our area.

One question was about Jerry’s position, and he replied that yes, every county in South Dakota has a veteran’s affairs officer and it is a part time position. The county pays half of his salary, and the VA pays the other half. There are field officers in Pierre that he works closely with, and all VA officers share their information.

Seiner stated that “right now nothing has been decided for sure” and he will be following all developments.

Other information shared by Seiner was that South Dakota has plans to name bridges across the State for deceased veterans. There are eighty-five bridges in South Dakota to receive this designation and Wayne Bridge of Wagner South Dakota will be recognized with a bridge designation in the future. The location of the bridge will be announced at the Veterans Day program at the school in November.

Jerry also brought with him to the meeting a picture of the Veterans Mural that will soon be placed on the South side of James Drug in Wagner. Mickey Harris, originally from Tennessee and now a resident of Menno, South Dakota, is the painter of the mural. If you have not seen his work, you will be awed by it. He has specialized in painting veterans’ vehicles and other murals. The mural will have security cameras and spotlights so that it can be viewed in the evening hours.

Contact Jerry or any member of the Wagner American Legion if you wish to donate to this worthy project.