President Bryan Slaba was present at Rotary on September 30th for our last meeting in the third quarter of our Rotary year. Attendance is still running around 12 members. We are hoping the Coronavirus slows down soon so all our members feel comfortable attending our meetings.

Pastor Bill Heermann gave the noon prayer in thanks for our food and fellowship and asked for a special blessing on those who have contracted the virus in our community, for those recovering from the virus, and those who are experiencing anxiety and loneliness.

There were no guests present so all members stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

President Slaba immediately turned the podium over to Sergeant at Arms Becky Brunsing who informed him of a $2 fine on him from last week because he never helps her listen for fines as members visit during their meal.

$2 to Gerrit Juffer for his autobiographical program last week and then Brunsing asked members to help her out and fine themselves.

$2 from Gerrit Juffer for his daughter being a Queen Candidate for Homecoming at USD and a possible $7 fine if she is crowned Queen

$2 from Roger Wiltz as he is excited about going antelope hunting this weekend

$5 from Scott McAdaragh for a new grandson

$5 from Linda Soukup for an exhausting weekend with a granddaughter getting married and her granddaughter Emily Brunsing graduating from DWU.

$5 from Becky Brunsing for her daughter Emily graduating from DWU with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. She is now back at DWU pursuing a master’s degree in English Next Learner and is coaching Junior Varsity volleyball.

$2 from Jeff Doom for calling the wrong daughter and singing Happy Birthday to her on the phone

$1 from Jerry Henke for Amanda Bechen’s cleaning lady abilities

Brunsing then announced the football winners: Bryan Slaba sold by himself and Brandon Frei sold by Patty Frei.

Kathe Henke drew the lucky ticket and came up short by pulling an Ace of Spades from the deck of cards. We collected $12.00 which increases the total of the winnings to $441.00 in the Queen of Hearts drawing.

Rotarian Member Roger Wiltz was up for the program of the day. We are having members give an autobiographical of themselves and Roger’s choice was an event back in 2006-2007 which he said was one of the best years of his life. Roger had been a Rotarian since the early 1980’s. After he retired from WCS in 1997 he began going back to the classroom in Tripp to return to a little teaching. As a result of driving to Tripp and back every day he was not able to attend our noon meetings, so he retired from the club also.

In the fall of 2005, he was visiting with his Rotarian friends Dave Isebrands and Ken Cotton and a District Governor, Dave Henning from our #5610 area who included him in a discussion about the recent yearly Rotary Convention. The annual convention is always held in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, or the other larger cities in South Dakota. The four men felt this was an obstacle to some Rotarians attending the convention and wondered aloud why it could not be held in Wagner with all our facilities. At that time there were several motels in the area and the school had just added on a beautiful Pre School addition with ample room for meetings. Roger thought it was a great opportunity but informed the other three that he really was not an official Rotary member anymore. That problem was solved, and he was quickly reinstated into Rotary.

All Rotary Presidents must attend a PETS (President Elect Training Session) meeting in preparation for presiding over their club for a year. Roger had in the meantime become a District Governor and at their DG meeting Roger introduced the topic of having the annual Rotary Convention in smaller cities and convinced the other District Governors that it was possible. Before attending this important meeting, Roger had presented his plan to the Wagner Rotary Club and the members gave approval to host the annual convention,

Roger gave credit to all the members of the Wagner Club who were on the Main Committee: Linda Soukup, Marcia Honomichl, Dave Isebrands, Ken Cotton, and others. Everyone in the club eventually had a job.

Roger reminisced about the events of that weekend. Friday night of that weekend in September of 2006 we met at the picnic shelter at Wagner Lake which was constructed by the Wagner Rotary Club from a grant that was applied for at $12,000. The Wagner Club raised the other money necessary to the project. This picnic shelter is a popular meeting place today for all kinds of groups.

Another highlight from that weekend was Ken Cotton and Dave Isebrands acting as Sergeant at Arms and fining certain attendees $20 from which they received a medallion inscribed with the Rotary 4-Way test and they raised a good deal of funds from this exercise.

Saturday afternoon the noon meal was shared with the Lakeview Hutterite Colony and there was singing by the youth and we were also invited into the Chapel where we received a history lesson and a briefing on life in the colony. There were also meetings all day at the new gymnasium added on to the south side of the school. Wagner made a good impression on attendees with our facility. Saturday was concluded with a trip on one of the WCS buses to view the Dam at Pickstown and the Struck by the Ree Monument.

The weekend ended with a Prime Rib supper cooked by the WCS cooks in the new preschool area. A band called “The City Slickers” from Rapid City provided music for the event.

Sunday morning was the final event which is held at every annual Rotary Convention and is a Memorial Service for all deceased Rotary members from the past year.

Roger also shared some of his personal highlights from his DG year. He became a fervent believer in the Rotary Foundation and spent time raising funds for this group. The Schwan’s Company matched every dollar that year. Roger was also instrumental in starting the District Raffle which all Rotary Clubs contribute a prize to, and tickets are sold. Some of the prizes are genuinely nice and worth a lot of money.

The Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary Club was suffering from a lack of members and vision so Roger challenged them to start a project and they built a softball park of concrete and called it a Field of Dreams for those who were confined to wheelchairs and are now able to play softball. The Mitchell Rotary Club donated $5,000 to a water project in Africa after Roger spoke to them and showed the picture of the starving child. As DG you must visit all the Rotary Clubs in your District, so Roger and his wife Betsy even went to Cherokee Iowa and helped them write a grant to the foundation.,

Roger and Betsy also went to the Rotary International meeting where he found out that politics had infiltrated into Rotary. A voting delegate for Rotary International had politicked with thousands of Rotary dollars to get his voting position. He was later reprimanded and removed from his position,

Roger is very fond of his year of District Governor in 2005-2006. The Wagner Rotary Club certainly benefited from his position and not just monetarily. All members experienced some remarkably interesting and educational benefits from hosting the convention. Roger made Wagner proud and our Rotary Club is still proud of his efforts and his Rotary membership.