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Icelandic
Hekla Club
For women of any age interested in Iceland or of Icelandic descent
MISSION:
-To promote Iceland and interest in Iceland
-To represent Iceland in the community at large
-To
celebrate Icelandic heritage and culture
-To promote
fellowship among Club members
REGULAR
MEETINGS: The third Saturday of
the Month in Sept., Oct., Jan., Feb., March, and May.
SPECIAL
EVENTS: CHECK CALENDAR FOR DETAILS
April
22, 2005: Samkoma: Celebrating 80 years of the
Icelandic Hekla Club
The Woman’s Club of
Minneapolis. Advance tickets required. Contact us by e-mail.
June
18, 2005: Picnic: Celebrate the anniversary of Iceland's Independence. Potluck. Free.
Members, families
and friends all welcome. Three Rivers Park Pavilion. Swimming, boating,
and playing fields available.
Co-sponsor:
Icelandic Association of Minnesota.
December
2005: Jólabarnaball: For
members, families and friends to celebrate a traditional
Icelandic
Christmas. Dance around a Christmas tree, meet the Jólasveinnar, and enjoy a
holiday buffet.
Co-sponsored with
Icelandic Association of Minnesota.
INTEREST
GROUPS
Icelandic
Night Out: Dine at family
restaurants with your Icelandic friends. Monthly during the
4th
week. Check the Calendar for specifics. Pay your own way. RSVP requested.
Contact Johannaemiller@yahoo.com.
Join the monthly email notice list.
Icelandic
Hekla Club History Committee – Founded 1925, Hekla
Club is one of the oldest
Icelandic American
organizations in the U.S. Explore the “herstory”
of this 79 year old organization and help prepare a printed history.
Contact us by email.
Pósturinn: The newsletter for the IcelandMinnesota
community. Reporters needed.
Other
Interest Groups may be set up as
requested by members.
MEMBERSHIP:
Dues are $10 per year. Women of
any age are welcome.
Contact us by e-mail if
you are interested in becoming a member. Benefits: Fun and fellowship,
advance notice and invitations for all events
and the newsletter Pósturinn.
CONTACT
US FOR MORE INFORMATION:
contact@icelandminnesota.com
ICELANDIC
HEKLA CLUB - a Brief History
Founded
in 1925, The Icelandic Hekla Club provides an
Icelandic presence in the community, supports
education about things Icelandic and promotes fellowship among its
members and the wider community.
It meets monthly September through June, hosting a Jólabarnaball
for members, their families and children and grandchildren in December,
the Samkoma
in April, and a family potluck picnic in June celebrating Icelandic
Independence Day. The Samkoma, an evening of visiting, dining and
celebration of Icelandic culture for everyone interested in Iceland, has
been held almost every spring since 1925.
The Samkoma
raffle is the Club’s major fund-raising event.
In 2002, the Club
helped plan and implement the highly successful INL Convention held in
Minneapolis on April 19-21, Western
Icelanders: Coming to America, which featured over 50 speakers on a wide
variety of topics concerning modern and historic Iceland. Over 440 people
from all over the U.S., Canada, and Iceland attended. Saturday night was
the annual Samkoma featuring Páll Skúlason, Rector of
the University of Iceland, to celebrate the 20th anniversary
of the highly successful exchange program between the University of
Minnesota and Háskóli Íslands
(University of Iceland).
Icelandic Hekla Club was very active in implementing the Leifur Eiriksson Millennium
Celebration in 2000 here in the Twin Cities. Millennium Events include
Storyteller/Puppeteer Hallveig Thorlacius, Brynja Benediktsdóttir’s one-woman play “The Saga of Guðriður,” the Karlakor Reykjavíkur,a
dance troupe, film festival and other events.
In 1996, the Club
actively participated in the visit of Nordic Council Literary
Prize-winning Icelandic author Einar Már Guðmundsson as
writer-in-residence under The Nordic Writer Program of Nordic Center, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Involved over the
years with the Twin Cities Festival of Nations, Íslendingadagurinn (Gimli, Manitoba), and other ethnic events, the Club
represented Iceland in the week-long Scandinavia Today festival (1982)
which celebrated the Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish
cultures. President Vígdís Finnbogadóttir and
royalty or heads of state from the other participating countries all
attended. Icelandic Hekla Club hosted a reception for President Vígdís while she was in Minneapolis. The Club has also hosted numerous
Icelandic visitors including choirs and teachers groups.
The Club promotes
education both in the United States and Iceland through financial support
of the Thor Thors Fund, the Val Bjornson Scholarship for the University of
Minnesota/University of Iceland Exchange Program. It has also donated
books, records and money to the University of Minnesota Scandinavian
Department and Icelandic children’s books to the renowned Kerlan Collection of children’s books at the
University.
Icelandic Hekla Club is a Minnesota non-profit corporation.
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