Gateway to Florida 3-541
Gateway to Florida Lodge 3-541 Treasurer Bonnie Hardman & Vice President Kent Larson present a $500 donation to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church Pastor Daniel Locke! Also, pictured is Tony Cruz, Cantor & Organist, at St. Mark’s & 15 year Lodge member!
Zone 4
Picture of Tore Heskestad playing his Hardanger fiddle. Picture 2 is Zone 4 Director Kaare Hansen giving Kristiane Krell her Zone 4 Scholarship for 2022 at a Luncheon at Big Valley Lodge, the former Land of the Vikings!
Fredriksten 3-125
At our April meeting the members of Fredriksten all stepped up and participated in trimming stamps for the Tubfrim project.
Washington Lodge 3-428
Washington Lodge 3-428 member Michael Plasha and one of the seven lundehunds that meet monthly in the backyard of Norway House. There are several lundehund families in the area who enjoy meeting and teaching others about this unusual Norwegian breed. Lundehunds were originally bred to hunt puffins and puffin eggs (puffin=lunde) along the cliffs of northern Norway. They were almost extinct by the 1960s but have become viable again thanks to efforts of dedicated fans and breeders.
News from Washington Lodge
Our March program was on the Viking Foundation of Dublin, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. You can watch the program on YouTube here We’re continuing to meet online but hope we can hold an in-person New Member Brunch at our lodge in April. The last New Member Brunch we held, before Covid arrived, was in April 2019. Since that time over 100 people have joined so we are exploring ways to accommodate everyone safely. We are also working on installing a high quality AV system so we can hold hybrid meetings at Norway house and invite speakers and guests from around the world.
Hampton Roads 3-522
For their first lodge meeting of 2022, the Hampton Roads lodge held a funny skit of Ole and Lena getting married. Since this was one of the first opportunities for the lodge’s members to meet in person after covid,
they had a great turnout and had a lot of fun. The wedding party consisted of Lenny Zingarelli as Ole and Judy Grandstaff as Lena. The rest of the wedding party consisted of Vivian Zingarelli, Ralph and AnneGrete Peterson, Terry Grandstaff, and Bob Rumney. Deanna Rumney was the wedding planner and organizer of this fun event.
Hampton Roads had its New Members Breakfast for a record number of new members. Between the main lodge in Virginia Beach and its satellite lodge Norge Norsemen in Norge/Williamsburg, the Hampton Roads lodge has once again exceeded its year 2021 recruitment goal and received the Founders Award from Sons of Norway Headquarters.
Norskevenner 3-678
We are continuing our monthly lodge Zoom meetings and try to have a speaker at each meeting, This month Sons of Norway member Jorgen Flood will speak to us about the break-up of the Danish-Norwegian Kingdom.
Norskevenner is also reviving its participation in the Satellite Lodge project and are actively looking for SofN members “at a distance” who are not lodged but might want to help build a satellite lodge in their area.
In February, we had a small meeting at Allesio’s Italian Restaurant in Roswell, GA and spoke about possible future projects for Norskevenner Lodge.
Sons of Norway Book Club
What began as a book club for the members of our lodges in Zone 7 has quickly become a national book club for Sons of Norway. We now have members in all districts with the exception of District 8 (Norway).
We meet on the last Thursday of each month and have two meetings that day. For our members in the eastern half of the U.S. we have a Zoom meeting from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. eastern time and a second meeting from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. mountain time for our west coast members.
We read two books a month. The main selection is usually about some aspect of Norwegian or Norwegian-American heritage, culture, literature, etc. Our second selection is always a Scandinavian mystery.
For more information, or to join our book club, please send an email to . Please include your name and the name of your lodge.
-Bill Browning
Nansen 3-410
St. Paddy’s day on Staten Island
Bondelandet 3-612
Winners at our March Bondelandet Lodge meeting in Lancadter, PA. The subject was Bingo conducted in Norwegian language, small dobated gifts as prizes. Was a fun event worth replicating. John Svensson
Oslo Lodge 3-438
Oslo Lodge officers pose at their February “Nordic Soup Warming” event.
Where was Viinland? And why did it disappear? Oslo Lodge, 3-438, CNY author MILTON NORMAN FRANSON makes a compelling case for answers to this mystery that has baffled historians (and many NorwegianAmericans) since Leif Eiriksson set foot on the N. American shore over 1000 years ago. Franson’s historical fiction trilogy tells the full story of Leif and the Greenland and Iceland Norse as they discover, explore and then attempt to establish a new Norse colony in the land Leif has named “Wine Land the Good”. Franson’s saga trilogy is called THE WINELAND SAGAS and is based on Leif’s own tale as he told his adventures to his family and friends upon returning to his Southern Greenland home. The WINELAND SAGAS is must reading for anyone curious about what really happened to Leif Eiriksson’s “lost Norse American colony” 1000 years ago. This historical fiction trilogy is available at Amazon Books.com in either digital reader format or in paperback.
Milton Franson is also the Publicity Director for Oslo Lodge.
Question? How many published authors are members of District 3. I know Restauration has one and Southern Star has one. Who else? Email me and I will put together a list.