DSS News March 2023

Danish SisterhoodNews

• Latest Lodge Updates

• 2023 Convention Details

• And more!

President’s Corner

Christina Sallee, National President

I am very pleased to let you know that we have received dates and locations for most of our Districts who will be having their Conventions this year. Please look in the Newsletter and online to see when your District Convention takes place, or if a District is having a Convention near you or somewhere you are visiting.

On the Board, we sometimes get questions as to why we have District Conventions, and why a National Representative is present, and I think this is the perfect time to remind everyone that the National Board members, just like you, are members of a lodge and District and we are very passionate about how we can continue serving and building the Sisterhood.

The District Conventions are meant to be a place for lodges to discuss and collaborate ideas, strengths and weaknesses. It is also a place for you to get together with longtime friends, make new ones, and to celebrate another year gone by, and to comfort each other remembering the people who are no longer here.

The reason a representative from National attends is for your benefit, so you have someone you know, or get to know, that can hear your concerns, update you on new tools that you can use, taking your information back to the Board, or give your Lodge/District recommendations as to what may have worked for another Lodge/District. We all have experienced that to keep a good connection with people, face-to-face meeting are often best, so I urge you all to go to your District Convention.

We have something that binds us and guides us in our mission and vision statements.

Danish SisterhoodNews

www.danishsisterhood.com

Volume 76, Number 3

Honorary Member Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

DANISH SISTERHOOD NEWS (USPS 148-200) is published monthly by the Supreme Lodge of the Danish Sisterhood of America. Office of publication at 1557 Oak St. Solvang, CA 93463. Periodicals Postage Paid at Rochester, MN.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to DANISH SISTERHOOD NEWS, 1557 Oak St. Solvang, CA 93463

EDITOR: Lauren C. Nielsen (507) 206-9099 Email: editor@danishsisterhood.com

Articles for publication in the Danish Sisterhood News must arrive to the Editor no later than the 1st day of each month previous to publication.

Subscription: Members $12 (US) Non-Members $20 (US)

Officers of the Supreme Lodge

National President: Christina Sallee, Lodge #81 16116 SW Deline Ct, Beaverton, OR 97007-3425 (503) 928 4494 president@danishsisterhood.com

National Vice President & Scholarship Chairman: Nealna Gylling, Lodge #186 1474 Floan Point Rd, Brainerd, MN 56401 612-390-1374 vicepresident@danishsisterhood.com

National Secretary: Glenda Madrid, Lodge #177 1557 Oak St. Solvang, CA 93463 (805) 448-7631 secretary@danishsisterhood.com • glenda_madrid@hotmail.com

National Treasurer: Linda Brooks, Lodge #21 8402 Winter Berry Dr., Castle Rock, CO 80108 303-905-9934 treasurer@danishsisterhood.com

National Trustee & Butikken Chairman: Linda Holz #102 4400 EP True Pkwy Unit 47, West Des Moines, IA 50265-5615 (515) 225-0951 trustee1@danishsisterhood.com

National Trustee & Website Chairman: Anna Nielsen #20 (262) 412-4482 trustee2@danishsisterhood.com

National Trustee, Membership Chairman: Karen Vig-Keathley, Lodge #4 109 South First Street, Itasca, IL 60143 708-715-0071 trustee3@danishsisterhood.com

National Past President: Sindy Mikkelsen, Lodge #126 2938 Sweet Grass Lane, Santa Rosa, CA 95407 (707) 755-0260

National Historian: Donna Christensen Thomas, historian@danishsisterhood.com

cont. on page 4

Velkommen

Lauren C. Nielsen, Editor

Dear Sisters,

As I type this, we are expecting yet another winter storm. But, while I've been staying warm inside I've been able to spend some time connecting with friends near and far through social media. I also follow several Danish social media accounts and enjoy living vicariously through them!

Recently, I've found some lovely photos of the northern lights in Northern Jutland. The lights over the sea, the lights on beaches and over towns. What a sight! Someday I hope to return to Denmark and maybe even see the aurora.

It's pretty neat all of the cool things we can see and experience from across the world. I hope you have done some of your own exploring of Denmark from afar, whether it's reading an article, following social media accounts, or partaking in a presentation about Denmark with your lodge.

As always, I hope you are all doing well and staying warm...spring will be with us again soon! Please remember to submit lodge updates and stories, historical pieces and photographs.

Until next time,

Lauren C. Nielsen, Editor editor@danishsisterhood.com

Youth Birthdays

On the Cover

Title: Ringsted Church

Photo submitted by: Marge Orth

This is the Lutheran Church in Ringsted, Denmark. It is the church where my Grandmother was baptized. Her name was Elna Hjort Sorensen. She was a member of Lodge #5 in Racine

Submit A Cover Photo

Do you have a photo that you’d like to see on the cover of the Danish Sisterhood News? Send in your submissions and yours could be featured next!

Photographs must be high resolution and should be accompanied by a short description of the photo’s content. Photos from Danish events, Sisterhood meetings, travels around Denmark, Danish culture and more are all great topics.

Send photos to: editor@danishsisterhood.com

cont. from page 2

Mission

The mission of the Danish Sisterhood of America is to strengthen, maintain and preserve the Danish heritage and traditions for future generations.

Vision

The National Danish Sisterhood organization will address changing times. We will build commitment to preserve our organization and heritage

with interest, enthusiasm and concern for each other.

I know you will have great District Conventions, and your National Board looks forward to seeing you there.

Stay safe,

Christina Sallee, National President

Updates from Katherine Lodge #20, Kenosha, WI

On January 29th, we had our holiday luncheon at Birchwood Grill, where a wonderful brunch buffet was offered. After a leisurely lunch with time to visit, we had a brief installation ceremony for our newly-elected board members, Marge Orth as Treasurer, Mary Lou Nielsen as Secretary, Vita Andersen as Trustee, and Kara Ernst Shalk as Trustee.

Following the installation ceremony, we all enjoyed a program presented on the Danish Windmill in Elk Horn, Iowa. Lisa Rasmussen Zanin shared her family connection to the windmill. Back in Denmark long before this very windmill was transported across the Atlantic plus half a continent to its new home in Elk Horn, a young man employed there happened to meet a young lady who brought him his lunch. He fell in love with this young lady and they married. That is the remarkable story of Lisa's grandparents! We are sure grateful that this bit of her family's history was preserved when it was bought by Harvey Sorensen and reassembled in its current location for all to enjoy.

Our Board will be meeting on February 4th to set the calendar for the year. Our regular meetings resume on February 15th, 6:30 p.m., at Festival Foods Community Room on Green Bay Road. The program will be a slideshow on the first people of Denmark.

2023 Katherine Lodge Board (left to right) Vita Andersen, Trustee; Margaret Orth, Treasurer; Lisa Rasmussen Zanin, Vice-President; Anna Marie Nielsen, President; Mary Lou Nielsen, Secretary; Kara Ernst Shalk, Trustee. (Not pictured: Majbritt Andersen Stewart, Past-President, and Jamie Mattek, Marshall

Updates on the DSS Archives from the Museum of Danish America

What can you access already?

Coming from a very Danish town in Wisconsin, I was curious whatever happened to the Sisterhood Enighed Lodge #14, founded in 1890. I went to the Museum website section “explore,” then “View Collection”. The keywords I used were, “Neenah, Wisconsin.” I was delivered 14 results of which all of the objects had a reference to Neenah. Success! I found a handwritten letter written in 1958 that states that the remaining three sisters were dissolving the lodge. Unfortunately, I did not recognize any of the last sisters. –

Mindy Brown, Littleton, CO

What is the Next Step for the Sisterhood Collection?

I have met with various lodges and district conventions over the last year, both in person and via Zoom, to report on the completion of what I am calling Phase One of the Sisterhood Archive Project. As you all know, from my communications in the DSS News, I spent two full years with your collection. I organized and cataloged material to make it easier to find upon request. I also scanned examples from the collection that you would be able to browse online and get a visual idea of what is contained in the collection.

Creating digital images of a collection is a costly, time-consuming process. To give you an idea, I scanned one small ledger totaling 150 pages, to provide to a fellow Sister for translation. It took me nearly a full day of work, approximately 8 hours, to use our simple scanner to photograph the individual pages and turn them into a computer file. Then I manually adjust the outside edges of each image before finalizing the file.

I believe complete scanning of this massive collection is unnecessary. I have, however, prioritized pieces of the collection for Phase Two scanning.

The 300 ledgers in the collection are my top scanning priority. Some of these are quite fragile and would be better preserved under minimal use. Scanning these would make them available to Sisters and researchers all over the world. It would also make it easier to share the

earlier ledgers for translation. The secretary and member ledgers are the most valuable for gaining both insight into the times when they were created and locating family members for genealogical research. There are also treasury ledgers, which show a map of expenses and the financial stability of the organization through time.

Secondarily, the DSS News is one of my most requested research pieces. Because these are typed, they can be scanned and put through an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process, which means a researcher would be able to search for names or topics within a newsletter.

How do we do this?

I’ve determined that we would need an overhead book scanner to maximize productivity. Rigsarkivet, the National Danish Archive, uses overhead book scanners for its current project scanning the Danish Church books, which are very similar to our ledgers. One technician is able to get

cont. on page 6

cont. from page 5

through approximately 15 books a day, since they scan and adjust at the same time. The cost of purchasing a book scanner is prohibitive, but renting one is reasonable and available to the museum. We would hire a six-month intern to scan the materials and upload them to the museum’s online library which is already in existence. This would make your ledgers and newsletters available to search online in a very short period of time. I look forward to seeing more of you at the DSS National Convention this year, and walking you through the process of searching materials that are already available to you.

Congratulations to our Centenarians

CELEBRATING YOU!

April

Today we honor and treasure your life and wish you a very Happy Birthday!

Helen Corlin Howard • Born April 22 in San Francisco, CA • 104 years old • Petaluma Lodge #126 • Joined June 1997

Cheyenne Jansdatter Archives Manager & Outreach Associate Museum of Danish America

10 MUST-TRY DANISH FOODS

SMORREBROD

Smorrebrod, or open-faced sandwiches, were invented by farmers who would pack leftovers from dinner on a slice of bread. These sandwiches are now a must-try and range from roast beef to fish

FLODEBOLLER

Flodeboller are chocolate-covered marshmallow treats on a thin cookie bed. These treats were invented in 1901.

HOT DOGS

In Denmark, there's perhaps nothing more popular than a Danish hot dog stand. The hot dogs are recognizable by their long, thin shape and their red casing.

RUGBROD

The first recipe for rugbrod dates back to 1703 and is still an essential part of Danish cuisine.

RISALAMANDE

This rice and almond pudding is traditionally topped with a cherry or fruit sauce. It was inspired by the classical French dessert of ris a l'imperatrice.

10 MUST-TRY DANISH FOODS

AEBLESKIVER

Aebleskiver is rumored to have originated with the Vikings, but the earliest known aebleskivers have been found in 300year old copper pans.

OYSTERS

Danish oysters are mostly found in Limfjord and are some of the best oysters in the world.

FISH

A country largely surrounded by the sea, fishing is a big industry in Denmark and this is clearly reflected in their cuisine!

BEER & SNAPS

Denmark has a long-standing beer and snaps history. Snaps is a word for a small shot of a strong alcoholic beverage. You may also know of several well-known Danish beers like Carlsberg and Tuborg. .

FLAESKESTEG

This pork roast has been a big part of Danish Christmas feasts ever since the Medieval Ages. You can identify this dish by the crackling on the top.

PHOTO CREDITS:

1. picnic-smørrebrød-johns-køkken-aalborg-1_©Johny Kristensen.jpg 2. Mad Konnerup Chokolade_19542.jpg 3. hot-dog-denmark2_©Rolands Varsbergs.jpg 4. danish-rugbroed_©Richard Clark.jpg 5. risalamande_©Freya McOmish, Scandinavia Standard.jpg 6. danish-oysters-1_©Freya McOmish, Scandinavia Standard.jpg 7. © Richard Clark 8. fish-cafe-møllehuset-lønstrup-denmark_©Claudia Zaltenbach – Dinner um Acht.jpg 9. Roast-pork-with-condiments-on-plate.jpg 10. Frokost_43672.jpg

Tartar Sauce (Remoulade)

1 c. prepared mustard

1 c. light brown sugar (not packed)

1 1/2 Tbsp. dill weed

1/4 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. salad oil

Blend first four ingredients. Whisk in oil, a little at a time. Store in refrigerator.

Makes approximately 1 3/4 cups.

Boiled Cod Fish (Kogt

3 to 4 lbs. cod

2 bay leaves

1 Tbsp. vinegar

1 Tbsp. salt

Clean the codfish and put it into boiling water with bay leaves, salt and vinegar. Sliced fish should simmer for about 10 minutes. Whole fish must simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Cut along the border for your very own recipe card!

From Danish Sisterhood Treasures Cookbook. Recipe from Danish Dairy Board.

Torsk)

Cut along the border for your very own recipe card! Recipe continues on back of page.

From Danish Sisterhood Treasures Cookbook.

Lemon Sauce

(Citron smør)

1/4 c. butter

1/2 tsp. cornstarch

1/4 c. cream

Dash salt

Jucie of 1 lemon

Mix the cream and cornstarch together; add the butter and salt, bring to a boil. When thickened, add the lemon juice. Serve over fish, cauliflower or any vegetable that is improved with a sharp sauce.

From Danish Sisterhood Treasures Cookbook. Recipe from Yvonne Schott, Lodge 177, Solvang, CA

Cut along the border for your very own recipe card!

Boiled Cod Fish (cont.)

Drain well and serve immediately with boiled potatoes and two different sauces, one pure melted butter, the other made of butter, flour and milk, and seasoned with mustard or horseradish.

Cut along the border for your very own recipe card!

Pamela Mauney

Helen Phillips

Judith Andersen

Linda Buck

Linda Buck

Margaret Raven

Cynthia Andersen

Heidi Althauser

Danish Sisterhood of America CONVENTION VENDOR FORM

On October 6-8, 2023, the Danish Sisterhood of America will hold its 28 th National Convention in Bloomington, Minnesota. Radisson Blu MOA

We are happy to offer you space in our Merchant Mall at $125.00 for three days. There will be a 6’2” table w/cloth available to you along with two chairs. Tablecloth plus skirting $10.00 per day. Electric $80.00 per day Due to the size of the room, we are limited to 10 tables on a first-come basis. Deadline for return of Convention Vendor Form is October 31, 2022

April 30, 2022.

Vendor Name/Lodge ___________________________________________________________________

Contact Name __________________________________________________________________

Mailing Address ___________________________________________________________________

Email _______________________________________ Phone ______________

The set-up time will be available Thursday October 5 th 8:00 am to 11:00 am. Please mail your check payable to Danish Sisterhood of America

Table $125.00__

Tablecloth

Electrical Total

Karen Vig -Keathley

109 South First Street

Itasca, IL 60143 -2114

If you have any questions, please contact Karen Vig -Keathley at trustee3@danishsisterhood.com Or 708 -715-0071. Tak

Thank you in advance for your interest and continued support and association with the Danish Sisterhood of America.

1. Hygge T-Shirt • Red with white print • Sizes: M, L, XL, XXL • Price: $20

2. Black Baseball Cap with Logo in Sequins • Price: $20

3. Wine Bottle Opener • Black & red • Price: $5

4. Danish Car Magnets • 4.5” W x 4” H • Price: $10

5. Oven Mitt & Potholder Set • Danish Flag Pattern • Price: $20

6. Danish Flag Coasters • Set of 4 • Price: $15

7. Aebleskiver Apron • Red • Price: $20

8. Puffy Vest • Cobalt with Sisterhood Logo • Sizes L, XL, XXL • Price: $50

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DSS Angel Member Status

The Danish Sisterhood has a new and very special member status, the DSS Angels. This status belongs to those members that wish to gift their funeral benefit back to the Sisterhood. We have had some members in the past make the Sisterhood their beneficiary. We believe this is a generous and significant gift, and wish to honor them while we can, keeping a list of our current “Angels” posted. A couple of options are available:

• A change of beneficiary to: Danish Sisterhood of America or,

• A change of beneficiary to one of the national scholarship funds. Be specific, ie: Betty Hansen Scholarship, Past National Officers, Camp Grant, etc.

If you wish to change your status, please contact your lodge or the National Secretary for a Beneficiary Change Form. Your benefit does not need to be fully paid yet, and you'd be expected to maintain your payments, as the Sisterhood will not receive the benefit until your passing. Those that do not have a funeral benefit as part of your membership category can participate by donating $1,000 to the Danish Sisterhood of America. On behalf of our entire membership, we wish to thank and honor as our first Angels:

Address Changes

If you have moved please use this form to notify the Danish Sisterhood of America.

Clip and mail to:

Danish Sisterhood News

National Secretary: Glenda Madrid

1557 Oak St. Solvang, CA 93463

I belong to Lodge #: Name: New Address: City: State: Zip Code:

Submissions Guidelines

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Submissions should be received by the Editor by the 1st of the month previous to the month published. Please submit captions for pictures, including names of people in the picture. Text for submissions should be less than 600 words (one typed page).

Mail or electronic submissions are welcomed Please proofread for clarity, spelling and grammar before sending in your submissions.