This Week in

The Wagner Rotary Club was called to order Wednesday, November 14th by a Past President, Bill Frei. Present President Jerry Weber is trying to get his crop out of the field as are many farmers in the Wagner area. Rotarian Laurie Kidd was called upon to offer a prayer and she gave thanks for the sunshine and beautiful day. She asked for a blessing upon the Rotarians and those who are homeless in this early onset of winter.

Rotarian Laurie then led the club in singing Home on the Range which we haven’t sung for a long time. The club members did an outstanding job of singing today.

Rotarian Dave Isebrands was up for a Membership Minute the topic of which was Rotary Foundation Month. Rotary’s work to eradicate polio continues, as does our work to promote literacy, economic development, better health, clean water, and peace throughout the world. All these endeavors are supported by our Rotary Foundation which is in its 101st year. This year our Rotary Foundation had already approved 222 district grans, with $31.9 million US dollars in total funding, and 41 global grants, with $11.9 million in total funding.

Rotary Action Groups (RAGs) are international groups of Rotarians, family, members, program participants, and alumni who are expert in a field, such as microcredit, peace, family, health, disasters or water. They can provide technical expertise, assist clubs with global grants by helping to prepare grant applications, conduct community assessments, identify partners, raise funds and establish monitoring and evaluation plans.

Rotarian Brenda Jaton had a chance at the Queen of Hearts drawing but drew an 8 of Spades. A loser receives a Lottery Ticket if they don’t win the pot and Brenda scratched her ticket and won $5.00! A total of $17 was collected today which brings the pot total up to $128.00 Football winners were Francis Doom, ticket sold to himself; and JD Cotton, ticket sold to him by his father Ken.

The attendance race has spun out of control again. The Henke Team had only two misses today with a total of 15 misses. The Frei Team had six absences making their total climb to 22 misses.

Program Chairmen up and coming are Laurie Kidd for November 21st, Jerry Henke November 28th, Kathe Henke December 5th; Jerry Weber December 12th.

Rotarian Ken introduced his program which was Tom Stanage, a PHD Psychologist with the Lewis and Clark Behavioral Associates in Yankton, SD. This institution services a seven-county area consisting of a nine-man Board of Directors of which Ken Cotton is a member. The counties included are Hutchinson, Douglas, Charles Mix,BonHomme,Yankton,Union, and Clay. It is a nonprofit 501 c3 Corporation. There are also 43 members from each of the seven counties who serve in an advisory capacity. There is at least one commissioner from each of the seven counties on the board. There are 155 employees and they operate with an annual budget of $8.4 million.

Services given in patient outreach include home visits, nursing home evaluations, and student evaluations in schools. Most of the outreach care was covered by the Human Services Center in the past. Lewis and Clark have developed their outreach care within the last 25 years and staff travel 4,016 miles per year, see over 48,000 patients a year;

There are satilitte clinics in Lake Andes and Vermillion. The two opposite ends of the coverage area. The patient load is increasing every year. Charles Mix County per capita is in the 14-percentile area for patient care.

Members began asking questions and the clock ran out on the program time. Mr. Stanage was asked if he would come back and give us more information in the future and he agreed.

The club adjourned for the week.