On June 9th, 2024, the Wagner Pool Fundraising Group known as Catch the Wave received a matching donation award of $200,000 dollars from the Arlene Kirby family to support their efforts to build a new pool. Kirby’s involvement was because relationship with the South Dakota Community Foundation, the parent organization of the Wagner Area Foundation Fund. This award will raise the current and pledged funds raised by the group to 628,000 with their final goal being to raise 1 million dollars from the community. Alto though Kirby is not a member of the Wagner community her father grew up here. She spent many summers in the area playing with her cousins in the Wagner pool that have left her with many fond memories of the town.

Kirby now lives in California but her affection for the area remains strong. Her matching fund challenge was largely met by the October 28th Murder Mystery Event which brought in $130,000 worth of community support. This event is just one of the many that the pool committee has orchestrated to encourage the town’s involvement in this project. These events have served the dual purpose of not only raising pool funds but also bringing the community together to just have fun. In addition to what they have raised in events the project was awarded $12,000 from the Wagner Community Foundation in January. They have also been the recipients of numerous pledges made by supporters in the area.

The current members of the committee include Ericka Kotab, Darcy Kaberna, Carly Schoenfelder, Jamie Tjeerdsma, Brenda Jaton, Michele Juffer, and Margaret Doom. Looking toward the future, the pool committee hopes to see progress made toward breaking ground on the initial pool structure using the combined funds of their group along with the 1 million set aside by the city of Wagner for this project.