Wednesday, November 20th, was a raw, blustery day in Wagner, South Dakota. The Wagner Rotary Club members braved the high winds to make it to the club building. Dana Sanderson, Michele Juffer, and Jean Crowe were guests for the meeting. Members were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the noon meal as there was a special program scheduled for the meeting.

Rotarians took a quick pause for a prayer by President Jordon Weber and then followed an abbreviated schedule of events to accommodate more time for the program presenter.

Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber managed to get his share of the following fines levied: $4 to Jerry Henke for an inappropriate phrase at the last meeting; $2 to Jeff Doom who left an aroma with his stocking feet at the last meeting; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for speeding up the proceedings and making it hard for Jerry to listen to all the fines he could have levied; $2 to Jamie Soukup for working on getting his camper ready to go hunting; $2 to Bill Frei for bringing in a big box and putting it in the safe; $2 to Bryan Slaba for having a cold meeting room; $2 to Tim Thaler for dressing all in black for the meeting; $2 to Patty Frei for handing the drawing tickets to Jerry; $2 to Jamie Soukup for forgetting to give Weber a fork. Happy Fines of $2 came from Amanda Bechen for getting helpers with the food bags; and $5 from Jeff Doom who attended a great wedding over the weekend.

Dana Sanderson pulled the lucky ticket number from the deck of cards and won $10 for pulling out a Joker.

Rotarian Patty Frei stood in for Craig Krsnak to give the Secretary/ Treasurer report. The Margaret Doom attendance Team has ten misses, and the Bill Frei Team has seventeen misses. The Queen of Hearts drawing is up to $76.00.

Football book winners were Sloan Weber sold by her husband Jordan and Dwayne Deurmier sold by Jamie Soukup.

Amanda Bechen introduced her program which was Nick Dion. Nick was a Rotary District #5610 participant in a cultural exchange program that traveled to Australia. There were about five individuals chosen from applications to the District for this cultural exchange. Some of you readers might remember that last fall the Wagner Rotary hosted a group of exchange participants from Australia into our Wagner community for a day of visiting our school, hospitals, and other locations. There were many applications for the return exchange trip in our district, and we were very happy to have one of our own community members chosen to participate.

Nick gave a presentation from his laptop that was interesting, educational, and inspiring. There were three participants from the Pine Ridge Reservation and one from the Sisseton Wapheton reservation, Nick from the Yankton Sioux Reservation and one member from the Rosebud Nation. The trip to Australia, South Wales, amounted to about twenty-seven hours of travel by airplane, layovers, and transfers. They arrived in Sydney, Australia on the fifteenth of October and presented that very night. They had a grueling schedule of meals and presentations to many different Rotary Clubs every single day. Most of their day trips consisted of about two hours of travel followed by presentations after every meal and then another trip back to their hosts’ homes.

Their Team Leader was from the Rapid City Hospital, Tibby Brown, and their Tour Guide was from the Ogalala Reservation. Nick was chosen from the Wagner Community as he is a youthful businessperson, devout Christian, Youth Leader, and an outstanding Yankton Sioux member.

Dion showed a comparison of the similarities between the Wiradjuri and the Oceti Sakowin people. He noticed the two groups both have experienced similarities in cultural values.

Cultural Parallels of the Wiradjuri and the Oceti Sakowin Milky Way, 7 Sisters Creation Story Stolen Generation Boarding School Breed out the Black “Kill the Indian” Yindyamarra Cultural Values 250 Aboriginal Mobs 574 plus Tribal Nations One of the interesting details we learned was that the native people in Australia do not have any representation in their Parliament which is comparable to our Congress. They have no treaties whatsoever, and they are not allowed to vote. A recent ballot race that would have allowed them to vote was defeated by 70 percent of the population to a 30 percent vote by the Native Australians. They do have their own flag which you will see Nick holding in the accompanying picture and the Australian Government does fly their flag along with the Australian Flag.

Dion gave thanks to the Wagner Rotary Club for sending him on this Rotary Exchange, and to Gerrit Juffer and Dana Sanderson who helped guide him through the application process for this trip.

Nick Dion is passionate about helping people and especially the youth. He said, “that he was blessed with having people who intervened in his life as he was growing up that helped him to take the right paths.” He will be using what he learned and the skills he has developed in his life to help others in the future.” There are trials and suffering in all lives in this world and what is needed is to help others as much as we can. On that note our meeting was adjourned.

There is no way that this recorder could relate to what an outstanding presentation Nick gave. We are hoping to be partners in sharing his trip with other community members and organizations in the future.