Wagner Rotary Club gave a round of applause to President Brunsing who gave a good ring on the bell to bring members to order. Rotarian/Pastor Bill Heermann gave thanks for all our gifts and blessings, the nourishing meal and asked for protection for the members as they go about our Wagner Community.

There were no guests for the day, so we went right into our song that was selected by Song leader Gerrit Juffer. Let Me Call You Sweetheart. Another song, another struggle. Is there possibly a pianist out there in Wagner that would like to help lead us in song?

Membership Minute Chairperson Ken Cotton spoke about World Understanding Month. To observe this designated month, many clubs arrange international speakers, invite youth exchange students and international scholars from schools and universities to club meetings, plan programs featuring former Group Study Exchange team members, arrange discussions on international issues, present entertainment with an international cultural or artistic theme and schedule other programs with an international emphasis. World Understanding Month is a chance for every club to pause, plan and promote the Fourth Avenue of Service—Rotary’s continued quest for goodwill, peace and understanding among people of the world.

Sergeant at Arms Jamie Soukup levied the following fines: $2 each to Jerry Weber, Bill Frei, Patty Frei, Jeff Doom. Jerry Henke and Jamie himself for talking out of line or talking over the President; $2 to Brian Slaba who walked in, and no one responded to his greeting; $2 each to Gerrit Juffer and Jeff Doom for bickering about the song selection; $2 to Jerry Weber for walking in with his purchased coffee. Happy Fines came from: $5 from Jeff Doom for his neighbor Ken Cotton out cleaning up his ditches; $2 from Kathe Henke who said a Walmart Greeter talked to them about WBS in Yankton; $4 from Jamie Soukup for his daughter Clarah tying for third place for Wagner in the Knights of Columbus Free Throw Contest the past weekend. Congratulations to Clarah!

The “Lucky Table” struck again! Jerry Henke held the winning ticket number but only drew a seven of Spades which drew a big groan from the members. They all felt terrible that Jerry missed winning $499.00!!

The attendance race continues its downward spiral. Juffer’s team had two absences and the Frei Team had one absence. Total: Juffer’s fifteen misses and six misses for the Frei Team.

President Brunsing announced upcoming events. There will be an eight-mile ditch cleaning project on Wednesday, March 13th. No noon meeting. The following Wednesday the club members will meet at the Two Spurs for our annual recognition of Senior Scholars and other class scholars as well. Linda Soukup announced that there would be a meeting of the Charles Mix County Historical Society that evening at Pad 71, and anyone was welcome to attend.

Rotarian Bryan Slaba gave the program. It was a brief update on the hospital and a slide show of his recent trips to Italy with his wife. The WCH has had a remarkably busy month in February. There were lots of illnesses out in the community. RSV, influenza, small amount of COVID, etc. The WC Clinic had its busiest ever month in the month of February with 583 patients coming in for diagnosis and treatment. Slaba is pleased that the hospital and clinic are staffed well to deal with the increased patient load. He has five full-time personnel, six personnel in the ER room, and the two Mental Health Counselors are completely booked up every day of the week. He is looking for another full-time counselor and two more interns to help with the patient load. He is also trying to secure a full-time person for prescribing patients with psychiatric medicines. That is a specialty field and requires special training to treat patients.

The Emergency Room has increased from six to ten emergencies a day and they recently experienced sixteen entries to the emergency room in one day. The personnel have adapted well to the surge in patients.

Rotarian Slaba then showed the members slides of a recent trip to Italy. The scenery was breathtaking and his comments about the various locations were interesting.

We adjourned in our usual fashion: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODIWLL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?