The Wagner Rotary Club came to order on the First Day of Spring, 2019 with high hopes that Spring will really be here. What a difference one week can make. There were no guests to be introduced so Pastor Bill Herrmann offered up a blessing for the sunshine and the fellowship.

Rotarian Ken Cotton gave the Membership Minute from our current April Rotarian Magazine. It was the Rotary International President (Barry Rassin) Message for the Month. April is Maternal and Child Health Month in Rotary. President Barry visited a modern hospital in the town of Jekabpils, Latvia. This hospital had a high mortality rate due to a lack of vital diagnostic equipment and even basic equipment items like incubators. Twenty-one clubs from around the world joined forces for a global grant that provided for the hospitals needs. In Brazil, club members worked with fellow Rotarians in Japan on a global grant project that provided new incubators, monitors and other equipment to enable the local hospital to save more babies’ lives. In Mongolia a vocational training team from New Zealand organized instruction in emergency response techniques for doctors and midwives, created a program to teach midwives modern practices and wrote a culturally relevant childbirth education manual. Transformation service, it is what Rotarians do best. Our networks span the globe; our community presence allows us to see what is most needed, and our expertise which encompasses countless skills and professions enables us to service in a manner that has no equal.

Rotarian Kathe Henke announced the song for the day; When the Saints Go Marching in. Our club pianist was absent but we started out well on the first half of the song. Everyone went silent when we got to the second verse. No one recognized the words. There must have been some leprechauns working on the songbooks as no one could figure out where the words came from.

Jeff Doom drew a chance for the Queen of Hearts drawing and a collective sigh of relief went up when he drew the 8 of Spades. One makeup came in for Joe Stedronsky which brought the team totals up to 31 misses for the Henke Team and only 19 misses on the Frei Team. President Jerry read a letter from member Brenda Jaton who was reluctantly resigning as a Rotarian. Her business requires her to be present most days during the noon hour. The club accepted her resignation with the hope that sometime in the future she will be able to rejoin.

President Jerry announced that the opening for a program on April 3rd will be filled with Francis Doom conducting an orientation session. This will hopefully make it easier for people to be present as opposed to an evening session. All new members for the last five years are encouraged to be present in two weeks for this important meeting. Jeff Doom announced that he is looking for a program for the Wednesday, April 10th meeting. Members were informed that Boys State applications will be going out at the school and the club agreed to sponsor two boys as usual. Members were made aware of our Rotary website, Rotary 5610.org. Check it out.

Francis Doom introduced Roger Wiltz as his program for the day. Roger had a slide presentation of his hunting trip to Argentina with Doug Koupal and Jeff Hall in 2018. Roger was aware of a hunting trip that was up for bid at the price of $7,700.00. He was following the progress of the bidding and there were no bidders; so, he thought he would jump in and possibly get the bidding started with a low bid of $1,300.00. To his surprise he eventually won the contest! The three men flew last June from Sioux Falls, to Dallas, to Argentina and then on to Patagonia to hunt Red Stag, wild boar, and ducks. They were about as far as one could get south of the Cape of Africa.

The three men stayed at a gorgeous homestead mansion, San Ambrosia on 85,000 acres that was founded by a family about 185 years ago. All the original furnishings and belongings are still preserved in the house. Two businessmen lease the private property and allow people to stay there for guided hunts on the property.

The days went by quickly and Roger was impressed with the quality of the provisions and the expertise of the guide. They would be served delicious meals beginning with a breakfast, then go out for duck hunting, get a snack, then go dove hunting, and then prepare for the evening hunt of ducks. There seemed to be a never-ending supply of ducks. The limit was 50 ducks apiece per day. No ducks were ever wasted and those that were shot were given to the poor in the villages. These ducks are non-migrating fowl so they are almost always in abundance.

Dove hunting was also interesting as they would occasionally shoot a green parakeet also. The locals do not like the parakeets and encourage the shooting of them. Doug Koupal bagged a 500 to 600 lb. wild pig. The slide picture of it looked enormous. Roger also shot a wild pig that was quite a bit smaller. He enjoyed taking pictures of the wild game, ducks, and the abundance of quail also. Hunting the wild pigs was quite an adventure. Their guide was always on a horse riding along gullies and ditches and chasing them out for shooting. You don’t have much time to shoot a wild boar and if you don’t shoot it immediately upon sight, they will shoot it for you as the boars tend to get vicious and try to kill the hunting dogs. There were several pictures of each man with his trophy animals. The photography was beautiful and Roger said he would have no trouble living in this beautiful country called Argentina.