“Dad’s Belgian Waffles” with great weather and Firemen BINGO brought an extraordinary crowd to multiple venues in Sutherland on Thursday April 20. Ruritan Club brought “Dad’s Belgian Waffles” to the community for a tasty sweet dinner. The annual fundraiser provides Ruritans with the necessary funds to carry out its community projects. 
Each year the Ruritans provide one South O’Brien 5th grade student a tree. The organization also took the lead in a successful campaign to raise money to replace the city’s downtown digital sign and a donation to Sutherland Museum. Other organizations the Ruritans provide funding to are Willoway, and the library. The ditches on M12 from Sutherland north a mile are kept debris free by the Sutherland Ruritans. The sponsor the Labor Day Kids’ Races, an annual ice cream social and provide 2 South O’Brien students with a scholarship.
Donald “Single Tree” Segelke and Richard (Dick) Hicks were two of those charter members. According to Denise (Hicks) Steffen, those two were very close friends. They did everything together. “Single Tree” was Dad’s nickname for him [Don Segelke],” revealed Steffen while enjoying dinner. During the week, Steffen forwarded to Ruritan officials a $100 donation to the organization by Renee (Segelke) Severson, daughter of Don Segelke. On Thursday, Steffen also returned the club vest her father, Dick, wore during Ruritan activities throughout his membership saying, “It is really hard to part with.” 
Ken Orthmann, a charter member, volunteered for the dinner. He was the only charter member present.  
Other activities by Ruritan include ditch cleaning on M12 north a mile and modest donations for local projects. The civic organization has helped with improvement projects at the Sutherland Library and at the City Park to name a few.
The Sutherland Chapter received its charter 1469 on August 15th, 1967. The original charter certificate identifies 31 charter members.