December 10th was our second to last meeting for the year 2025. Jamie Soukup welcomed all the Senior students and asked them to speak about themselves: Senior Justyn Jaton is the son of Brenda and Joey Jaton, and he plans to attend Southeast Vo-Tech in Sioux Falls after graduation. Leighton Carda’s parents are Gina Carda and Mike Carda. Leighton plans to join the United States Army! All Rotarians and guests recited our Rotary Grace, and we enjoyed a Cordon Bleu lunch courtesy of Boom’s.

Song leader Rachel Woods picked out an appropriate song: “We All Get Together” which was sung quickly and with merriment. Rotarian Patty Frei followed with our weekly Membership Minute about Rotary beginning with an attorney Paul Harris of Chicago, Illinois who brought together professionals with diverse backgrounds who could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. Over time, Rotary’s reach and vision gradually extended to humanitarian service. Sixteen years after being founded Rotary has clubs on six continents. Our membership now spans the globe, working to solve some of our world’s most challenging problems.

Sergeant at Arms Gerrit Juffer began levying fines with $2 each to Jordan and Jerry Weber for having a sister/aunt who is going to retire soon after thirty years of service at Buche Foods! Congratulations Jody Weber Kotab! Rachel Woods and Amanda Bechehn were each fined $2 for having the same colors; $1 to Joshua Christensen for Bryan Slaba not being present only two days before his big party, and another $2 for defending a referee call against Rotarian Jamie Soukup’s child. Another $1 was assessed to Jamie for calling Christensen out on the call for which Christensen apologized after reviewing the penalty, all of which was recorded on Jamie Soukup’s phone! Soukup even showed the video to Matt Slaba. Sounds like we should be attending basketball games if they are this exciting!! $1 was levied to Alison Woods after having a conversation with Rachel Woods over whose aunt was a favorite; and $2 to Jeff Doom who pulled out in front of a semi which the Sergeant witnessed. Happy Fines came from Jeff Doom who was $2 Happy that the semi didn’t kill him and $2 from Tim Thaler whose Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears.

Jordan Weber drew only a three of Clubs from the Queen deck of cards which is now at $78.00 The attendance race if getting out of hand. There were two misses on each team, but the totals show that Alison Woods team has twelve misses and Josh Christensen’s Team has TWENTY-TWO! That prompted a discussion on “IF” Rotarians could make up a missed meeting by doing some good works. The rule keepers in the club reported that there must be three Rotarians present at the makeup project which put a kaboosh on all of that.

Rotarian Bill Frei had the program for the day which his wife Patty helped him with by connecting to our TV screen. There was a video on how to connect our phones to Rotary for many different things. Makeups, Membership, meetings, and all pertinent information on Polio, Paul Harris Fellowship Membership, chats, emails, and updates on all current Rotary information will be available every day of the week from 10 to 4 but not on Sundays.

The Rotary App can be downloaded from the App Store which everyone has on their phones.

The meeting was adjourned with the recitation of 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 GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Seniors Justyn Jaton and Leighton Carda