The Wednesday Rotary meeting on October 8th marked the beginning of the WCS Senior students attending for their annual visit. This has been a long tradition of inviting Seniors to attend a regular Rotary meeting where they introduce themselves to the membership. There were four Senior girls beginning with Kalea Kuhlman whose parents are Rhonda and Jeff Kuhlman. Kalia plans to attend Mitchell Technical Institute in Mitchell, South Dakota for nursing. Ashlyn Koupal’s parents are Mike and Tera Koupal, and she will be attending college in Nebraska for business and will also be playing basketball. Kamea Houseman, parent Darius Hoonmichl will be attending Black hills State for Dental Hygiene. Brylie Link’s parents are Linsay and Todd Link. Brylie plans to attend Dental Hygiene at the University of South Dakota. Note of interest: All four girls stated that their favorite subject in school was taught by Mrs. Keely Brunsing.

As soon as introductions were made President Jamie Soukup led the members in our Rotary Prayer for our meal and Rotarian Rachel Woods led the group in singing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” The membership was surprised that we did an incredibly respectable job singing this old standard.

Membership Minute Chair Patty Frei gave the Rotarians a Pop Quiz to see how much members knew about Rotary’s campaign to end polio. She has worked to develop another Walk for Polio this year that will be combined with “Pints for Polio” with Choteau Creek Brewery donating proceeds from every pint purchased to help fund our Polio Now Campaign. There will also be a silent auction on site at the Brewery. Last year there was a “walk around Wagner Lake” but this year it will be on a Friday night, October 24th to help promote more participation by the Rotarians. Great idea Patty!

The Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber was busy “combining” so President Jamie asked if there were any “Happy Fines”. Linda Soukup donated $5 for her great grandson coming home from a hospital stay from a serious illness; and $3.20 for her daughter Becky and Mike Brunsings 32nd wedding anniversary; Rachel Doom donated $1 for her sister Kelsey’s birthday followed by Jeff Doom also donating a $1 for the same cause; Kelsey also was $1 Happy for Lori Bouza donating her football winnings back to the club. Jerry Henke was $5 happy for a letter from the Charles Mix Soil Conservation agency accepting the donation of butternut trees he grew to be distributed throughout the County. Jordan Weber was happy by $1 that his dad was combining his beans for him and another $1 for the fact that they were “Pioneer Beans!” Bryan Slaba donated $5.00 for receiving a recent award for being an Outstanding Hospital Administrator and another $5 for his daughter buying her first house in Pennsylvania. Patty Frei gave $5 for her son Colton buying his “own Semi”; and Jeff Doom donated $5 for his last daughter buying her own house in Virginia. Alison Woods was happy to donate $5 for the fact they just broke ground for building a new home.

Point of information: If you are interested in obtaining some of the Butternut trees for yourself, please call Dawn Schulte at 487-7577 at Charles Mix Conservation District in Lake Andes and they will be happy to help you obtain a tree or two or more!

President Jamie Soukup held the winning ticket for the Queen of Hearts and only found a five of Spades amongst murmurs of a “fixed deal”. Soukup was entitled to a Lottery Ticket, and he won $3 from that scratch.

Secretary-Treasurer Craig Krsnak announced that there was not a winning team from the last quarter of meetings since the numbers from both teams were even. New sheets for team members were handed out with Jerry Weber being assigned to the “all woman team” and Jordan Weber being assigned to the other team. Alison Woods oversees the women’s team and Josua Christensen is the captain of the all men’s team. Since there was no actual winner there will be no steak meeting next week.

Krsnak also announced that he had received papers showing that the Wagner Rotary Club had been “incorporated” back in 1976. The papers were handed over to Linda Soukup to be preserved for the future. There have been no such filings made for incorporation in the recent past to anyone’s knowledge. Soukup announced that she had managed to smooth out the old blueprints of the Rotary building and was turning them over to Rotarian Jeff Doom who plans to frame the papers to be hung in our meeting room.

Krsnak also announced two weeks of winners from the football books. The past weeks’ winners were Brooke Weber sold by Jerry Weber and Matt Rustmen and Andy Bechen sold by Amanda Bechen. Book #17 winners for this past week were Karen Schneider and “Lucy” Juffer (who is actually Gerrit Juffer’s dog).

Rotarian Alison Woods presented her first program as a Wagner Rotarian, and she chose an interesting topic. She spoke about joining Rotary and what made it sound like something she would enjoy being a part of.

Her boss, Gerrit Juffer asked her to join and besides feeling “obligated” to say yes, she said she asked Juffer many questions about Rotary and what it does. Belonging to an organization that is so community minded spoke to her desire to be a part of something that would be meaningful for her. She then asked Rotarians that she had contacted earlier to speak about why they joined Rotary in the beginning. Rotarian Jordan Weber spoke first and said he had been a member for about five years, and Bryan Slaba had been his sponsor. He has enjoyed the Senior visitors, being in an organization with his father Jerry, and especially has liked networking with other Rotarians on projects. He enjoys being around people and likes the fact that it works on developing leadership skills as he spent the past year as President of the Wagner Rotary.

Amanda Bechen spoke next, and her sponsor was Linda Soukup. She joined in 2014 as a new business owner and her favorite part about Rotary are the programs and the people you meet through those programs. She mentioned that projects like helping sponsor the Todd Becker Foundation for the youth last week were something she felt was especially important for the community. She also spoke about how she interviewed our past Joe Stedronsky who had been a Rotarian for many, many years. It was an interesting experience for her since he had been a member longer than anyone else in the club.

Jerry and Kathe Henke were next to speak. They met through Rotary in their North Carolina homes. Both had lost their spouses and knew each other through their Rotary experiences. Jerry began traveling in SD many years ago and said that the people he met were always Rotarians willing and able to help him with anything. Kathe has been a Rotarian for 31 years and was originally born and raised in Germany. She knew that Rotary was an organization admired and respected worldwide.

This was a longer meeting today and we quickly finished by reciting The Four-Way Test of the things we think, say or do: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWIL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?