June 7th was the hottest day the Rotary Club has met for a meeting so far this year. Rain is desperately needed! President Rachel Woods welcomed the Rotarians for the start of the meeting and read a prayer of thankfulness for the food and company and asked if we could be blessed with some rain; to which all answered amen.

Rotarian Jeff Doom oversaw the music for Gerrit Juffer and insisted on singing everyone’s (?) favorite, Stodola Pumpa. We had to sing all three verses at a very fast pace.

The Object of Rotary was the topic from our The ABCs of Rotary booklet. Ken Cotton read: The Object of Rotary is “to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise.” The statement lists four areas by which this “ideal of service” is fostered: the development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service; high ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society; the application of the ideal of service in one’s personal, business, and community life’; and the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

Sergeant at Arms Jordan Weber had been busy writing as he ate his meal. Fines were levied as follows: $2 to Amanda Bechen for her crazy entrance; $3 to Bryan Slaba for rough paper in the hospital; $2 to Jerry Weber reading and writing; $3 to Rachel Woods for her post about her Dad’s initial necklace; $2 to Scott McAdaragh for not having Jordan Weber’s favorite beer in stock; $2 to Ken Cotton for Henry the VI; $3 to Jeff Doom for his crazy music and wearing baggy pants. Happy Fines came from Jerry Weber for $8.50 in honor of his mother’s 85th birthday next week on June 9th (Pearl Weber); $5 from Jeff Doom for having the best fishing trip of his life and catching the same Northern Pike six different times and throwing it back in.

Secretary/Treasurer Craig Krsnak reported the attendance race is holding its own. Weber’s team has twelve misses and Soukup’s team has eleven. Rachel Woods lost $83.00 when she drew the Queen of Hearts. Close to the King, but not close enough Rachel!

Krsnak also announced that Tanya Uquita who spoke to the club two weeks ago reported to him that she has arranged for some coffee sessions on Elderly Fraud in Armour and Platte and is working on arranging a session in Wagner.

Craig Krsnak also was in charge of the program for the day, and he introduced Jennifer Barnett, a student from WCS. Jennifer is planning an event for July 2nd which is on a Sunday. It is called Stars and Stripes Night.

“This is an event directed towards encouraging teen involvement and community. Through this we hope to build relationships and teens’ abilities to form true connections. Everyone is welcome! Every form of contribution is greatly appreciated!”

Jennifer spoke about her reasons for planning this event. It came after much thought and observations of relationships/friendships at school. She became aware at mealtimes that students might visit for about ten minutes at the most and then all visiting ceased, and everyone was on their phone reading or listening to something. She began to realize that most teens are staying only in their close circle of friends outside of mealtimes also. She is concerned that phones have changed the way young people think and act, and they are not establishing connections with a wide range of people due to this habit of checking the phone so often.

Rotarians readily agreed with this observation and many commented that it is a problem at family gatherings and meetings, and even sometimes in church services children are on their phones or tablets.

Jennifer said “this event is directed towards, but not limited to, teens. The goal is to have a stronger community. She has planned events such as: Teen Spike Ball Competition, Teen Bean Bag Competition/ Community Art; Food; Balloon Toss Competition, and there will be Prize Money.

There were some offers from Rotarians pledging support for the prize money and the supplies and T shirts. If you have questions about this event please contact Jennifer Barnett, 605-491-4252 or jb4222@k12.sd.us Look for more information in the newspaper in the coming weeks.