Wagner Rotary met on Wednesday, November 27th for its regular meeting with a full house. Pastor Bill Hermann offered up a prayer of thankfulness for the food, the hands that prepared it, and asked that we all be blessed by our Savior at this thankful time of year.

Three guests were introduced by Rotarian Becky Brunsing: Her daughter Abby Brunsing and daughterEmilyBrunsingwhowere on Thanksgiving break from Wagner Community School and Dakota Wesleyan University respectively. She also introduced Keeley Anderson who is on holiday break from South Dakota State University and will be practice teaching in WCS the next semester under Mary Lease.

A Membership Minute was given by Ken Cotton especially for the benefit of our new, younger Rotarians regarding the Paul Harris Fellows. The most important step to promote voluntary giving to the Rotary Foundation occurred in 1957, when the idea of Paul Harris Fellow recognition was first proposed. (Paul Harris was the founder and organizer of the first Rotary club in Chicago in 1905.) Although the concept of making $1,000 gifts to the Foundation was slow in developing, by the early 1970s it began to gain popularity. The distinctive Paul Harris Fellow medallion, lapel pin and certificate have become highly respected symbols of a substantial financial commitment to The Rotary Foundation by Rotarians and friends around the world.

The companion to the Paul Harris Fellow is the Paul Harris Sustaining Member, which is the recognition presented to an individual who has given, or in whose honor a gift is made, a contribution of $100 with the stated intention of making additional contributions until $1,000 is reached. At that time the Paul Harris Sustaining Member becomes a Paul Harris Fellow. By 1995, more than 470,000 Paul Harris Fellows and 160,000 Sustaining Members have been added to the rolls of The Rotary Foundation.

A special recognition pin is given to Paul Harris Fellows who make additional gifts of $1,000 to the Foundation. The distinctive gold pin includes a blue stone to represent each $1,000 contribution up to a total of $5,000 in additional gifts. Paul Harris recognition provides a very important incentive for the continuing support needed to underwrite the many programs of The Rotary Foundation which build goodwill and understanding in the world.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd led the group with Come Ye Thankful People, Come, and our old standby Smile!

Roger Wiltz had a chance to draw the Queen of Hearts but only drew a 6 of Hearts. Secretary-Treasurer Patty Frei reported that we collected $19 for the drawing bringing the total to $151.00 She announced the winners of the football books were Francis Doom and Jamie Soukup. The future is looking grim for Pastor Laurie’s attendance team. There were only 2 absences for the day, but the total is 13 for the quarter so far. Pastor Bill’s team also had 2 absences, but his total for the quarter is only 4. There are only three more Rotary meetings in this quarter to make up.

She also informed the club that we made $305.00 on a recent delivery of aluminum cans to the recycling business in Mitchell. The price of aluminum has gone down since our last delivery to only 17cents. Francis Doom was thanked by President Frei for taking the cans to Mitchell. Rotarian Francis replied that thanks was also needed for Bill Hartley who donated two tires and two rims for the trailer. WBS was also thanked for putting the new tires on the trailer.

Jerry Weber was called to the front to receive his plaque for serving as a Past President. Jerry announced that he was collecting any donations for the new statue being made in honor of Past Governor Dennis Daugaard who was a Rotarian. Donations should be directed to Jerry who will see that they go to the South Dakota Foundation Fund that has been established for these statutes.

Rotarian Rachel Woods introduced her program which was WCS Teacher and Coach Tera Koupal. Tera has been in the process of establishing a broadcasting class and crew to video and stream athletic and other extracurricular activities for the school. This allows people to watch these events when they are not able to attend in person at the school.

They recently received some brand-new equipment which has helped greatly. They started out small and the group keeps growing as well as their abilities develop. They have been doing sporting events so far, beginning with the volleyball season. They even did some broadcasting at out of town games. The last three events they started doing the audio play by play.

The students that are in this class are kids that are not in any other extracurricular activities. They love what they are doing, and they are good at it. Their grades have improved, as well as their attendance at classes. This is a new area of interest for students not previously offered and is proving to be a valuable addition to the curriculum.

Since it is a school activity there are no monetary offerings accepted. They are developing free ads for Wagner businesses and if the businesses wish to donate some of their goods in return for a free add that is worked out between Tera and the business owner.

Tera showed a video the class produced in honor of Veterans Day and the five seniors at WCS who have joined the National Guard. The students are Tony Bruguier, Jr, Chance Blaha, Payton Mora, KJ St. Pierre and Devon Medricky. The video was impressive and included patrioticmusicandinterviewswith the five Seniors.

Sergeant at Arms Becky Brunsing was busy during the above proceedings and had a full list of fines:

• Jeff Doom, $1 for snitching a cookie during the singing, $2 for sitting at a table full of women, and $1 for his comment about the Sergeant looking like a Greek in her glasses (from eye surgery).

• $3 to Bryan Slaba for his comments about the same.

• $5 to Ken Cotton for twice referring to President Bill Frei as Mike.

• $2 each to Craig Krsnak and Jeff Doom for not cleaning the sidewalks.

• Happy Fines were $1 from Roger Wiltz for a reply to his Letter to the Editor which he will follow up on; $1 each to Gerrit Juffer, Craig Krsnak, Jamie Soukup, Jerry Weber, Ken Cotton, and Bryan Slaba for hooting about the Coyotes win over SDSU last weekend.