Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary

08/27/2026

Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary added four new members this week. Please help us welcome:

Josh White
Ryan Spellerberg
Russell Finch
Meg Hanneman

Glad to have all four of you. We can't wait to see what you bring to this club.

Welcome to Rotary!

08/20/2026

This week, Downtown Rotary hit the road, and landed somewhere special: the historic State Theatre.

Rotarian Allison Weiland led a conversation on the Theatre's remarkable 100-year history and the role it's played in downtown Sioux Falls for a century. Then the spotlight turned to South Dakota's growing film industry, with local filmmakers Joe Hubers, Carson Knecht, Tate Mohlenkamp, and Brian Bieber sharing an inside look at what it actually takes to make movies here.

Great venue, great conversation, and a good reminder of how much creative talent is right here in our own backyard.

Thanks to Allison and our panelists for a memorable Rotary on the Road.

08/15/2026

Congratulations to Rotarian Monica Rilling for being selected for Leadership Sioux Falls!

08/14/2026

Terry Grateful Liggins just joined Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary, and he brings a resume built entirely around helping people through hard things.

Terry, MPA, is the founder of TLC Services, where he works with organizations on DE&I and trauma-informed leadership, and he's also the founder of the Hurdle Life Coach Foundation. A former national champion hurdler at the University of South Dakota, he's spent his career applying that same discipline to advocacy work, supporting at-risk youth, adults in reentry, and people in recovery across Sioux Falls.

He was sponsored into the club by Jack Marsh.

Welcome, Terry. Glad you're here.

08/14/2026

It's showing up everywhere. High-level competitive and pre-professional programs. Adaptive soccer for youth with cognitive disabilities. Neighborhood leagues where families play for free and share a meal together. Same game, a lot of different doors into it.

That's the picture of soccer in Sioux Falls right now, and it's what we dug into at Downtown Rotary this week.

Rotarian James Oppenheimer moderated a panel with Rotarian Russell Finch (Executive Director, Dakota Alliance Soccer Club), Randell Beck (Founder, YMCA Neighborhood Soccer League), and Rotarian Sherri Meyers (She-E-O, Sioux Falls City Football Club), and Ryan Beier (Top Soccer and Harrisburg High School Boys Soccer) each bringing a different piece of how the world's game is expanding its reach here.

Thanks to James and our panelists for a great conversation.

08/07/2026

Charity Heaton just joined Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary, and honestly, she was already doing the work before we asked.

She's with Eide Bailly, and she's spent time on the board of Goodwill of the Great Plains, served on United Way's Community Impact committee, and volunteered with Junior Achievement. So this isn't someone new to showing up for this community, it's someone who's already been showing up, and now she's doing it with us too.

She was sponsored into the club by Aaron Clayton.

Welcome, Charity. Glad you're here.

08/06/2026

Congratulations to Rotarian Paul Hanson on this new role!

A well-known Sioux Falls healthcare leader has taken on a new role advising others in the field nationwide. https://siouxfalls.business/eide-bailly-adds-longtime-healthcare-leader-to-national-team/

08/05/2026

As Sioux Falls grows, making sure every resident can get the care they need matters more than ever. We're fortunate to have strong medical systems in our city, along with organizations working every day to close the gaps and connect people to the resources they need to live healthier lives.

Rotarian Dr. Daniel Heinemann moderated a panel featuring Mike Turner (Owen's Outfitters), Christopher Montgomery (Project Car), and Dr. Bob Santella (Midwest Street Medicine), three organizations doing that work on the ground in our community.

Thank you to Dan and our panelists for a great conversation.

07/31/2026

Please help us welcome Molly O'Connor to Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary!

Molly is with Reach Literacy, and was sponsored into our club by Vicki Stewart. We're glad to have you, Molly, and we're looking forward to all the ways you'll get to plug in and serve alongside this club.

Welcome to Rotary!

07/31/2026

As we wrap up July, huge thanks to two outstanding programs at Downtown Rotary this month.

First, we dug into what it really takes to build a business that lasts generations. Chris Thorkelson (Lloyd Companies), Craig Snyder (VIKOR), Lucas Fiegen, AIA (Fiegen Construction), and family business advisor Jerrad Aman (WillKate) joined us for a candid conversation on trust, succession, and the tough conversations that shape both families and companies. Moderated by our own Eric Erickson, Executive Director of the Prairie Family Business Association. SiouxFalls.Business covered it here: https://siouxfalls.business/family-business-leaders-share-what-helps-companies-endure-across-generations/

Then we turned to water. Rotarian Steve Watson moderated a panel of regional water resource leaders, Troy Larson (Lewis & Clark Regional Water System), Kurt Pfeifle (Dakota Mainstem Regional Water System), and Scott Buss (Minnehaha Community Water Corporation), on the multi-generational planning underway to keep our region's drinking water safe and affordable. South Dakota Searchlight has more on the eastern South Dakota water pipeline project discussed: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2026/07/27/estimated-cost-of-proposed-eastern-south-dakota-water-pipeline-is-at-least-8-4-billion/

Thank you to all of our speakers and moderators for bringing these conversations to our club. This is what Rotary does best, bringing the right people into the room to talk about what matters.