The Icelandic Society of Northern California
Spring 1999 Newsletter
Last updated 6/1/99
To be celebrated on June 13th, 10 AM at Lake Del Valle
June 17th is Iceland's Independence Day. June 17th 1944, Iceland established the republic after almost seven centuries of colonization by the Danish and the Norwegian.
To celebrate this important event in Iceland's history, the society will organize a picnic in a park were members can gather and celebrate this important day in Iceland's history. Since the actual June 17th falls on a Thursday, we decided to celebrate it on Sunday, June 13th at Lake Del Valle.
Lake Del Valle is located nine miles south of Livermore. This beautiful lake and park was once a Bud Lite Triathlon Series site. This area offers some great opportunities for hiking, biking, boating, long open water swim, or simply just lolling on the beachfront, soaking up the sun. Camping is also camping available.
There is no charge for the picnic, but members have to bring food and drinks to share. The society will bring the charcoal for the grill.
Be cautioned it can be hot and there is little shade in the area.
Hope to see you there.
The annual Thorrablot is the main fundraiser of the year for our Society. Planning a party like that is as difficult as planning a wedding. We have to order the Icelandic food way before the event. We also have to rent silverware, plates and table linens. The size of the hall is also a consideration.
Because we have been selling tickets at the door in past years, we have had to order more food and rent more table settings than we expect to use in case a great number of guests arrive that evening. As you can understand, this is not an efficient way to run a fundraiser. We have spent too much money on locally bought food as well as the expensive food costs from Iceland. Because of this, we only made a small profit of $399.19 this year. Not much of a fundraiser.
For this reason, we regrettably will no longer be able to sell tickets at the door at the Thorrablot. We will, however, give you more notice next year of the date so you have plenty of time to order tickets in advance. As always, we will give refunds if you find you can’t make it to the party. If you would like a more detailed report of the finances for the Thorrablot, please contact Adda Sigurdar or Denise N. Andresen. They can fax you a copy.
We ask that those of you that haven't paid your dues for 1999 (about half of the members) to please do so to Adda Sigurdar. We cannot possibly afford to send newsletters any longer to people who have not paid. If your envelope is marked "UNPAID", this will be the last newsletter you will receive.
This newsletter reaches almost 300 homes. Let others know about your service, business or event by placing an ad or announcement in the next newsletter. Contact board member, Denise N. Andresen for additional information.
Skandifest is rapid approaching. For those who have not been to Skandifest, it is a festival held at the fairgrounds in Turlock, California every year since 1989 during the last weekend in September. This festival is to celebrate the heritage of millions of Americans who proudly trace their heritage to "Viking" homelands.
Skandifest celebrates this legacy of all the immigrants who came to America from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
The Icelandic Society currently participates in the Saturday morning parade with a float and walkers in the national dresses. Last year we had an Icelandic princess, an information table and participated in the flag ceremony. This year we are hoping that we can add to this list, for example the Icelandic Society is planning to have a booth where we can sell Pylsur (hot dogs) and other items from Iceland. We have some local people in Turlock and Modesto who always help, but we need more people to help out to be able to continue the current program and to add to it. This could be slide shows, story telling for children about Iceland, art exhibits and more. Please contact a board member if you are interested. For more information visit www.cityofturlock.com/skandifest/ on the web.
This article is to inform and hopefully generate interest of all our members about what a small group from our community (Millennium Events Planning Committee) has started working on in order to plan events in tribute and celebration of the discovery of the North American continent by Leifur Eiriksson in the year 1000.
These events would be taking place mainly during next year. However some of them might become annual events. Leifur Eiriksson was a 2nd generation Icelander born in Iceland around 974 at Eiriksstadir in Haukadal. In the first meeting on March 23, 1999 we had 13 people, some of whom had signed up at Thorrablot. We discussed whether the local Icelandic Community would be interested in planning and/or coordinating some events locally. In this meeting people thought that there were interest for some events and many good ideas were proposed.
The next meeting was held April 23 (first day of summer in Iceland). The turnout was small due to heavy traveling schedules. We discussed some of the items in more detail from the earlier meeting. We also felt that in order to get some of the ideas going we need to start planning fund-raisers. The first one will be a Saturday June 19th, an afternoon picnic at Dorothy Cartwright's house in conjunction with a celebration of Iceland's National Day, 17th of June.
Following are the ideas proposed in the first meeting. At the same time as we like to share with all of you the ideas that have been put forward we also welcome any one who wants to come forward to join in on the fun or if anyone has ideas that they would like to share. We are open to almost anything and will never turn down participation from any of our members. We foresee that there would be sub-committees for each event so if any one is interested to help with one or more events please contact us. --Gisli Hermannsson, President.
The Icelandic Society is sad to be losing our Publicity Chairman, Leifur Bjornsson to his homeland. Leifur and his family are moving back to Iceland late this summer. Among other things, Leifur has created and maintained our website and has done a great job. We will miss his input on the board. Best wishes are sent to him and his family for the future.
We are happy to welcome Leifur's replacement, Gudrun Finnsdottir to the board. Gudrun Birna Finnsdottir lives in Mountain View with Software Engineer husband, Snorri Sturluson and two-year-old daughter Sif Snorradottir. They came from Iceland two years ago. She works as an Office Manager for a small Engineering and Prototype Shop in Palo Alto. Any inquiries about the web site or society publicity should be directed to Gudrun.
Spend Christmas and welcome in the millennium in Iceland!
The dates (still to be confirmed) are (from Los Angeles) from December 20th to January 8th.
At the moment the total fare is $580 per seat. Seats are going fast, but are not reserved unless a $150 deposit per seat is paid. Seats are limited. Checks only please.
Please make checks payable to Iceland-2000/Skulason. The address for information is: Sandra Skulason, 10310 Canyon Vista Road, Moreno Valley, CA 92557(909) 247 6462 or email sku3@juno.com. Please send two self-addressed stamped envelopes along with the down payment and of course the names of the people reserving the seats. The envelopes will be sent back along with a newsletter when details will be confirmed. The deadline for down payment has been set as May 15th but if there will be a lot of people who still want to go, there is a possibility of a second charter in December.
If cheap fares to Iceland are something that interests you, try www.icelandair.is. Click the Lucky Fares button and sign on for their biweekly lucky-fares e-mails. Especially in the off-season this can be quite cheap, and not available any other way but through the Internet. Highlights from past fares include:(Valid for purchases made between April 15 - April 21, 1999)
GUIDELINES FROM ICELANDAIR
Make your reservations on or before April 21, 1999. Seats are limited and may not always be available. Airport taxes are not included. These fares are only valid for bookings via http://www.icelandair.com or email lucky@icelandair.is. Valid for travel from North America to the listed European destinations. If you book your travel arrangements through our homepage, make sure you click on CALL ME rather than CHARGE MY CREDIT CARD - then type in SPECIAL OFFER CLUB in the REMARKS section. Don't mind the price the computer books for you. We will change it if the Lucky Fare applies. Please send email, with specific travel dates, departure and arrival cities, the number and name(s) of people traveling and a contact phone number. We will contact you within 24 hours! We are closed on Sundays! Please DO NOT CALL ICELANDAIR RESERVATIONS, as these fares are not available through our telephone system. For travel within the next 3 days, please include your departure date in the subject line (i.e. RE: Lucky Fares Number 11 - April 17). Depart from BOSTON (BOS) to Reykjavik-$319, to Amsterdam-$300, to Copenhagen-$380.