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Wednesday, March 15th, the Wagner Rotary Club had an almost full house with guests Amy Doom friend of Rotarian Amanda Bechen, and Lisa and Paul Schoenfelder who were the guests of Rotarian Becky Brunsing program chairman of the day.

Rotarian/Pastor Bill Heermann offered up a warm welcome to all present and gave thanks for the warm weather of the day.

Song leader Gerrit Juffer chose Viva La Rotary! for our song. His Bluetooth accompaniment was rather s-l-o-w and the members were forced to sing all four verses at a snail’s pace. This song is a Rotary favorite and is supposed to be sung loudly and with lots of gusto!!! More on this in the fines section.

The Membership Minute was interesting with lots of information for the club on RYLA. What is RYLA? An adventure that just might change your life! RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Award. A RYLA participant is selected by his or her local Rotary Club to attend a camp designed to build character, leadership, personal development, and good citizenship. The “Award” part of RYLA is the actual scholarship the Rotary Club provides so that a participant may attend camp free of charge.

Rotary District 5630 and 5610 have hosted Great Plains RYLA for more than 2,300 students since 1990. RYLA has trained young leaders through activities, workshops, and a variety of presentations by speakers in business, government and education. The camp is a five-day experience full of indoor and outdoor activities that emphasize teamwork and decision making. In addition, RYLA focuses on service and Rotary’s role in building stronger communities by emphasizing both local and global citizenship.

Who is Eligible? Current sophomores or juniors enrolled as a student or home schooled in a community that is located with the boundaries of Rotary District 3610 or 5630.

A student applying during their sophomore year who is not accepted may reapply during their junior year. A student can only attend only once.

Students selected must commit to full participation in the program and attend camp on all dates with a desire to develop and utilize leadership skills.

This years camp is July 9-13, 2023 at Maranatha Camp and Retreat Center in Maxwell, NE. Deadline to apply is March 32, 2023.

Rotarian Jerry Weber levied the following fines in place of his son Jordan Weber SAA: $10 to Jamie Soukup bagging a Mountain Lion that weighed 160 lbs! $2 to Rachel Woods for being on camera so many times at the Girls Basketball finals in Watertown; $2 to Linda Soukup for using Rachel Woods maiden name of Doom in her report last week! (Apologies to Rachel!) $2 to Scott McAdaragh for swiveling his head so much when he entered the room looking for a table to sit at; $5 to Bryan Slaba who was not present but was fined anyway for not updating the club’s digital thermostat to DST. The club Room was only 55 degrees when members arrived! Hope you are reading this Slaba! $2 to Gerrit Juffer for trying to act out the Rotary Song; $2 to Bill Frei and Jerry Henke each for all the harassment they were giving to Jerry Weber; $2 to Becky Brunsing for looking so professional for the day. Happy Fines were given: $5 from Amanda Bechen for not having her phone ring; and $5 from Jeff Doom for having the Henkes back.

Jerry Henke is a lucky man. He had another try at finding the Queen of Hearts. There is an almost full deck that we are starting on and Jerry got quite close by drawing the Queen of Diamonds. The Queen drawing is up to $330.00.

The Third Quarter Attendance Race is getting lopsided again. Jordan Weber’s team has 13 misses and Jamie Soukup’s team has 10 misses. There are only two more meetings left in this quarter.

Rotarian Becky Brunsing introduced her program which was Choteau Creek Brewing Company: Paul and Lisa Schoenfelder. The club just attended a night out at their establishment last Wednesday so Brunsing thought it might be a good time for CCBC to given an update on their business. The Schoenfelders began their business in March of 2020 which proved to be a hard time to start a business as their opening coincided with the Pandemic. Paul is originally from Parkston and Lisa was born and raised at Wagner on the Sip Homestead. They met in college, married, and spent many years working for a municipality in Idaho. They did a lot of thinking and planning during those years as they always wanted to come back to South Dakota. They had a plan: 1. Be economically viable, 2. Make a good product, 3. Contribute to the Community.

Lisa has worked for 40 years remotely for a company called Asset Management which is a software company. After Paul was able to leave his job they moved back to the Sip Homestead Farm east of Wagner to live. In the past three years they have built the beer brewery which originally was an afterthought and obtained their brewing license, obtained their food license, became certified managers of a kitchen and established a Bed and Breakfast. They work together well as Paul is the master of the beer brewing and the Tap Room and Lisa manages the kitchen food and the bookings for the Bed and Breakfast and also Harvest Host.

Harvest Host is a subscription service for people who have an RV (recreation vehicle) and travel around the Midwest. Subscribers pay $100 per year to the service and can call any listed host. They pay only $15 to park and in return spend at least $10 in merchandise which can be food, beer, souvenirs, etc. They believe this also benefits the community because these people eventually spend money for gas and groceries in Wagner.

In the past three years they have expanded their beer brewing selection, have sent their beer out to other brewers who are holding a sponsored event, and have expanded their interaction in the community with beer and catered food.

Their future goals are to explore doing off site food, increase their beer production, increase their seating capacity on site, and continue to have Music on the Farm which they sponsored a few times last summer. They are always looking for employees and are willing to train them and teach them how to be Certified Kitchen Managers.

Please check them out on Facebook and their website: Choteau Creek Brewing Company, Sip Homestead Farms Bed n Breakfast. You can Google their websites also: Choteau Creek Brewing Company, etc.

I could write pages about this business. You really need to make the trip out east to experience this unique business for yourself.