Wagner Rotary Club began their April 9, 2025, meeting with a ring of the bell and a recitation of our special Rotary Prayer. Song leader Gerrit Juffer picked an “oldie” for us to sing: “Old McDonalds Farm.” We were instructed to use chickens, ducks, and moo moos for the animals. We did an excellent job of it.

Membership attendance was down a little with five members absent due to work commitments. All Rotarians are busy people! Rotarian Patty Frei gave a Membership Minute on the Opportunities for Fellowship in Rotary.

Once a week the opportunity for Rotary fellowship occurs at each club meeting. The weekly meeting is a special privilege of Rotary membership. It provides the opportunity to visit with fellow members, meet visitors you have not known before, and to share your personal friendship with other members. In case you haven’t been to the Wagner Rotary Club room, it is a spacious room with five round tables and one long table at the front for the officers to conduct the weekly meeting. Guidelines for seating: 1. Rotarians are encouraged to sit in a different seat or at a different table each week. 2. They are especially urged to sit with a member they may not know as well as their long-time personal friends. 3. Members are expected to invite new members by saying “Come join us, we have an empty chair at this table.” 4. Members share the conversation around the table rather than just eating in silence or talking privately to the person next to them. 5. Rotarians make a special point of trying to get acquainted with all members of the club by seeking out those they may not know. Warm and personal friendship is the cornerstone of every great Rotary club.

Rotarian Jeff got a chance at the Queen of Hearts drawing and found only the eight of Diamonds. Rotarian Krsnak announced that the Queen Drawing is up to $298.00 and there were five misses today. The attendance teams will be chosen next week. There will be two team captains, Kathe and Jerry Henke, who will be competing against each other.

There was discussion on cleaning the ditches and it was decided that Rotary would clean the next two Thursdays after work on the 17th and 24th of April. Meet at 5:30 and bring appropriate gear and equipment. Rachel Woods displayed the Charcuterie Board that her business designed and made for the District 5610 annual raffle. It is an extremely attractive item. All tickets sold by the Wagner Rotarians must be turned in by April 15th with the proceeds given to Rotarian Becky Brunsing or Rotarian Craig Krsnak.

The program was given by Rotarian Bryan Slaba who treated the club members to a slide presentation of his recent trip to Germany, Hungary, and Austria. These are always very colorful pictures, and he narrates each slide giving the history behind the item shown. Slaba went on the trip with his wife Diane, and his brother and sister-in-law. Bryan’s wife plans their trips and makes all the arrangements at each location.

Their first stop was Berlin. Slaba was amazed at how new everything was in the city but realized that the reason for that was the fact that Berlin was demolished by the WWII bombing. Transportation around Berlin was mostly by electric rail cars. The important thing they learned quickly was that pedestrians do NOT have “right of way” in Germany. They viewed several historic sites, and he remarked how grateful Germans are for the Americans liberating their country.

One of the most interesting facts about the countries he visited was that the beautiful churches and cathedrals that were centuries old are no longer used for church services. There were no churches with ceremonial services in Berlin.

Most of those buildings have been turned into museums, concert halls, or other large-scale activities. The country is still extremely strict about going in and out of its borders. They visited a memorial which was huge slabs of concrete that was dedicated to the murdered Jews in WWII. It was a strange-looking memorial and when they questioned what the concrete slabs were no one was able to even describe what they were.

Their next stop was the Czech Republic. The Czechs have abandoned their churches and church services also. The Jesuits are the only active religious community in the country. They toured a Czech cathedral in Prague that was very ornate and trimmed all in gold with a clock on the outside that had movements on the hours. They also toured a Czech Royalty Castle which has been turned into a dancing house. There was a stark contrast between the “old” Prague and the “new” Prague. The new Prague was exceptionally clean and pristine.

Then on to Vienna in the country of Austria. They toured a castle that was occupied by the family of Hapsburgs for centuries. It was also the home of the Lipizzaner Horses which they saw perform.

Their last stop was Budapest in the country of Hungary: It was a truly diverse, historical city and easy to get around in. There was one location his wife insisted on seeing and that was a hotel which was very ornate, with great service and food. Dianne had read about the hotel and was happy to be able to visit the location.

The meeting was adjourned with the recitation of The Four Way Test: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWILL & Better FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?