From the chair - pat bellingham

Svea Lodge has a calendar filled with wonderful activities, dedicated members, new members, and a renewed sense of our purpose; bringing the Scandinavian culture to our community.  There is a lot happening so you'll need to visit our website often to keep up!

Midsommar is one of the biggest celebrations, next to Lucia, in Scandinavia.  We will celebrate at Presque Isle State Park on June 21st starting at 11AM.  Bring a dish to share, a chair, lots of fresh flowers for decorating the maypole, and some good shoes!   We'll be playing some traditional games and maybe dancing a few steps!  The Lodge will provide ham, table service, coffee and water.

Disclaimer - I recently sent out a reservation email for Midsommar.  Unfortunately, the subject of the email was for (again) Paskris!  If you read the body of the reminder it does say Midsommar.   Sometimes the email has a mind of its own.

At our banquet last week, our Cultural Leader, Linda, put us all to the test of our Scandinavian knowledge.   The table, 'Vikings' knew the most trivia, 7/12 questions and each one at the table got a prize for their brain power.  Phones had to be put away so there was no googling.  My table, the 'Swede Squad' didn't fare so well.  And I think we all got stumped on what country old time actor, Elliot Ness's, parents were from!  How many of you know which Scandinavian country has the longest coastline?  Or what invention designed by a Swedish-American became something that changed modern clothing?  

As part of our membership perks, each family receives a copy of the The Vasa North Star, published by Nordstjernan, a Swedish American Newspaper.  It is published for us 4 times per year.  Individuals may also subscribe to the Nordstjernan for monthly subscriptions.  You can learn lots of cool information about happenings in Scandinavia.  

Be kind to your neighbors, you never know who may need a kind word.

Pat

Genealogy is a hot topic these  days.  So many people are looking to investigate their family heritage.  Kathy Cuff, the Archivist from Vasa Order of America, is willing to do an on-line genealogy seminar for us.  Our goal is to have the first meeting in July, with follow up groups if there is interest.  As an added bonus, this is a great way to engage with our long distance members!  Please click on the button to do a quick survey by June 8th.  That way we'll know how many and who might be interested.  So far, we have 10 folks signed up, 10 of whom signed up that Thursdays would work!