The Wagner Rotary Club met on Wednesday, December 21st at the Rotary Building for one of their last meetings of the year. After the meeting was called to order guests were introduced. Rotarian Patty Frei introduced her daughter Callie who just graduated from SDSU, and Rotarian Jamie Soukup introduced his wife Charlene who was his program for the day also.

Rotarian Jeff Doom led the group in reciting and “sort of” singing an old meal blessing. The Song master Gerrit Juffer picked out an easy song “Jingle Bells” which everyone could easily sing. It is probably the first Christmas song every child learns.

Assistant Sergeant at Arms Jamie Soukup filled in for Jordan Weber on fining the Rotarians: $10 to Jeff Doom for not removing the snow from around the Rotary Building; but gave him $5 credit for singing the meal prayer; $5 to Bill Frei for having four crutches by his table; $2 to Kathe Henke for making a remark about Bill Frei’s very short haircut; $2 to Linda Soukup for sitting at a different table and mixing Jamie up; $2 to all the Jackrabbit fans for their big win last week; $2 to all the Vikings fans for the biggest comeback in football history; $2 to Bryan for picking on the Assistant Sergeant; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for a phone infraction and another $2 for a remark he made before the songs; and $2 to Jeff Doom for a confusing remark about snow skiing . Happy Fines: Patty Frei gave $5 for her son Colton graduating and taking over the farm chores while Bill recovers from surgery; $5 for Callie also finishing college; Jeff Doom offered a fine of $5 for skiing with an Olympic Skier last year; $5 from Kathe Henke for her granddaughter being admitted to Duke University; and $5 from Jamie Soukup for his wife giving his program for him.

Callie Frei had a chance at winning the Queen of Hearts drawing, but she drew three spades. There is currently $211.00 in the pot. The attendance teams seem to be trading places. Jamie Soukup’s team had four misses for the day and Jordan Weber had two misses. This brings their totals to nineteen for Jamie and 16 for Jordan.

The Rotary Club did not meet last week due to the severe weather so there were two weeks of football winners: Curt Kaberna sold by Amanda Bechen and Margo Soukup sold by Kathe Henke were winners two weeks ago. Tammy Hanson, sold by Rachel Woods and Jay Fitzgerald sold by Becky Brunsing were winners this past week.

Other business discussions centered around doing something different for our yearly Predictions meeting. It was suggested to have only a few topics for everyone to use for predictions and possibly have a prize given for the person who was the most accurate on the 2022 predictions.

Rotarian Jamie Soukup introduced his program which was his wife, Charlene Soukup. Charlene is the Elementary Counselor at Wagner Community School. She is also the President Elect of the South Dakota School Counselors Association. She graduated from Beresford High School and began her postgraduate education at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion in 2008. She graduated with a degree in Psychology and Journalism. She graduated from USD in 2010 with a Master of Arts and began working in the WCS district in 2009 while driving back and forth to the University to complete her degree work. She is now in her fourteenth year of counseling.

Charlene and Jamie were married in 2010. She had a very nice presentation beginning with giving a little history on the difference in Counseling and Guidance Counseling. Counseling changed over the years and gradually became two distinct endeavors. Some of the Rotarians remembered counseling starting in Wagner and how it changed over the years. Charlene provided the names of past counselors and present counselors.

She elaborated on her own duties in the Elementary grades, and she also works with Jen Lhotak who is in her 24th year of counseling and Lori Brunick who is in her 14th year. Charlene answered several questions about her work and explained the other resources available to her.

A great presentation which was thoroughly enjoyed by the club members.