Wagner Rotary Club met Wednesday September 12th with a full house for the first time in weeks. Guests were introduced: Roger Wiltz brought his wife Betsey, Jeff Doom brought his wife Julie who was also helping him with his program, and Rachel Woods brought her husband David Woods.

Rotarian Glenn Hofer offered up a prayer of thanksgiving for our beautiful day, our club, and our community. He asked for a special blessing on those in harms way of the impending hurricane on the east coast.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd led the singing with the first and fourth verses of America the Beautiful in honor of the previous day’s remembrance of 9-11.

The Membership Minute was dispensed with so that a new member could be inducted into the Wagner Rotary Club. Past District Governor Francis Doom performed the ceremony as Dana Woods became a member. He was welcomed with a round of applause.

Kathe Henke drew the lucky number for a chance at the Queen of Hearts. She drew a Heart, but only a six. There are now 8 cards left in the deck.

Sec/Treas. Patty Frei announced that the Henke attendance team had only one miss today for a total of 14 misses; but the Frei team had 2 misses for a total of 22 misses. There are only two weeks left in the quarter for makeups. We collected $20 .00 today which brings the Queen of Hearts drawing up to $883.00!

Patty announced that she had received notification from the District Governor that he would be attending our Wagner Rotary Club on Wednesday, October 31st. Glenn Hofer has the program for that date, so he is set for a program. The dates of the District 5610 Annual Rotary Conference are the 28th and 29th of September in Vermillion, South Dakota.

There were two football games this past week so there were several winners from the football books. Jorden Weber sold by Jerry Weber, Roger Wiltz sold by himself, John and Alicia Cotton sold by Ken Cotton, and Abby Brunsing sold by Becky Brunsing.

Rotarian Kelsey Doom reminded everyone that there is a swimming pool fundraising event in Wagner this Saturday called Summer Slam which will be held at the Teener Baseball Field. There will be bands, vendors, games, and lots of food. All are invited to attend.

Jeff and Julie Doom presented the program which was a slide show and narration of their recent tour to Normandy, France and Ireland. They were very impressed with the history of the Allied Invasion on the Beaches of Normandy WWII. The pictures of the five beaches and the obstacles that were placed in the way of the landing invasion were interesting. Of special interest to Jeff because of his occupation in concrete and buildings were the pillboxes and tunnels constructed by the Germans. The Allies gave the impression that they were landing in a different location and the planning and mobilization of their forces was monumental. There were also pictures of the landing crafts specially built for the invasion. The landscape is still full of craters from all the bombs that were launched.

The Dooms also visited several cemeteries where the war dead are buried. Soldiers’ families had the choice of burying their loved ones in the country where they died, buried back at their home location, or buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

They also toured museums and other war locations. Their WWII guide was an 84-year-old gentleman who had a master’s degree in WWII History. He was very knowledgeable and gave an added depth of education to the sights.

The Dooms also visited the Eiffel tower in Paris and then went on to Ireland where they toured various pubs and castles. One interesting fact shared with the club was that there are 33 million Irish in the world but only 6 million of them live in Ireland.

A very enjoyable and interesting program. The club adjourned in its usual fashion by singing America.