Lodge Updates

At the July 26th Hygge Meeting, Sister Florence (Frogge) Dupont received her 25year membership pin from President Sandra Parker. She joined at age 6 years. In attendance also were 3 generations of her family members, all of whom are Hygge Sisterhood members. Beginning on the left are her grandmother, Karen Hoylman, her mother, Kendra Frogge, and her daughter, 4-year old Clara Dupont. Both Karen and Kendra served as Past District Presidents and Florence attended Himmelbjerget Youth Camp and worked at many bazaars, helping her mother in the White Elephant department. She also attended many district conventions through the years. She is now an elementary school teacher. For the map of where members are from, please add 4 sisters to the Aalborg location for this family.

Sandra Nelson, Hygge Secretary

15th, at noon, purchasing the main food items and members bringing the remaining items. Our annual "Hats and mittens" project should be brought to this meeting. MOO convention notes were passed around for members to look at. Sunshine Fund box was also passed around. Meeting adjourned by president and we all departed for our homes.

Loris Coltson, secretary

Northstar Lodge #100

The Northstar Lodge #100 met on August 18, 2021, at Bush's Kelly Joy Restaurant at Lexington Heights at noon, with nine members and two guests present. Meeting called to order by president, Ann Raven, followed by secretary and treasurer's reports.

Thank yous have been received from Eva's Place and the Rescue Mission for our donations. It was decided to have our Christmas dinner at Hope Lutheran church on December

Membership Expansion

Welcome New Members!

LODGE

19 15 177 177 177 177 177 177

NEW MEMBER

Annette Jacobsen Catherine Kiemel Renee Westerhuis Joyful Westerhuis Mariah Westerhuis Ashlee Madrid Aleena Madrid Adeline Madrid

SPONSOR

Dorrit Gruendell Judy VandeSande Julie Vandecar Julie Vandecar Julie Vandecar Glenda Madrid Glenda Madrid Glenda Madrid

Amber Lodge #186 in Brainerd, MN had a very busy August getting ready for a big event. The Sons of Norway Sagatun Lodge along with Amber Lodge, Danish Sisterhood, sponsored the Viking Festival held at the Crow Wing County Fairgrounds on August 21st. Nealna Gylling was in charge of our Aebleskiver food booth and Barb Wenschlag was in charge of the children's craft area for all festival attendees. Our lodge sisters were very busy planning, setting up, decorating, making and selling Aebleskiver to many attendees. Everyone

loved eating Aebleskiver and learning about the delicious Danish food. It was the most popular of the food vendors with long lines of fairgoers waiting for their

Aebleskiver. We hope we interested some new people into joining with handing out Dsnish Sisterhood flyers. Kids ages 4 to 16 enjoyed making crafts including painting shields (using 16" pizza rounds), knotting yarn wall hangings, making flying dragons, and incising letters into air drying clay slabs to spell their name in Viking rune letters. Kids were able to take all their craft projects home with them. Everything was a great success and we were all very exhausted after the Festival was over!!!

Submitted by, Barb Wenschlag

Flora Danica Lodge #177 in Solvang was finally able to gather in-person in August of 2021. Our last in-person meeting had been our Anniversary Dinner meeting in March of 2020. However, we were not completely isolated during those months as we had two drive through dinners of open-face sandwiches prepared by The Red Viking Restaurant in Solvang, including special desserts prepared by Bent Olsen of Olsen’s Bakery in Solvang. We invited the Solvang Brotherhood Lodge to participate and they were equally happy to join in for the delicious meals.

Our meeting in August 2021 was at the home of our President, Karen Voorhis. We sat outdoors on her beautiful patio and enjoyed each other’s company as well as some Danish-style hotdogs prepared by Karen’s father, Erik Pedersen. All of the side dishes prepared by our members made the meal extra special and we were treated to a presentation about the history of Eskimo Pie ice cream…and then served ice cream in the Eskimo Pie style (since they no longer make the original). We also initiated three new members. We met again in person in September 2021 and initiated another three new members. We are growing! Sadly, Danish Days was canceled for the second year. However, our Lodge set up a popup booth on September 18 to sell some of the beautiful and clever homemade crafts that our members have continued to make during the lock-down. Photos are from September 18th booth. We will meet again in October and discuss our Annual Community Giving recipients and amounts. However, one worthy recipient received our donation early during the groundbreaking ceremony for the improvement project of the Solvang Festival Theater. The Theaterfest as it is known, is approaching 40 years old. It is an outdoor theatre which is used by the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts (PCPA) during the summer months offering several plays each year. The theatre is also used by the local community for various fundraising events during the year. Flora Danica Lodge #177 voted unanimously to donate to this worthy cause. Else Lassiter attended the groundbreaking ceremony and presented our check to the Solvang Festival Theater Rebuilding campaign. We all look forward to attending the PCPA plays next summer and for many years to come.

Lisa Larsen Pedersen, Secretary

Ellen Lodge 21 has been off the radar for several months, but we’re all back, with only a few bumps and bruises to show for the last year and a half. Thank goodness life has been back to semi normal for the last 6 months or so: visiting friends, eating out, going on long walks...all without a mask, for now. Our last “in person” meeting was in February of 2020. We chose to forgo meetings and instead keep in touch through Ellen’s Corner newsletter. If anything needed to be voted on, the voting took place online. We also have a new member that joined during covid restrictions: Annette Straus. Please welcome her to our Sisterhood family. In April, with 6 in attendance, we had our first Board meeting via Google. Since that went fairly well we tried it again for our monthly members meeting in May. Google or Zoom meetings are actually a fairly good substitute when meeting face to face is out of the question. After members were fully vaccinated, our first in person gathering took place at the “Edgar Resort” (home of Sam and Pia Edgar) in Bailey, Co. It was so great to see our Sisters and guests face to face without masks for the annual picnic/ brunch. The weather was perfect (usually rains), and so was the food and the company. Pia usually puts together a fairly complicated quiz, and not one to disappoint, she did it again. Instead of the quiz being about Denmark, it was about the history of the Sisterhood in Colorado and the happenings in Denver and Colorado during the early years of Ellen Lodge. With the help of Pia’s family and their friends, and co-hosts Birgitte Jappe Ross/Jeff, and Pia Hansen/Renee, it was a great success. Even though covid still caused a few obstacles along the way, two of our Sisters (Pia Edgar and Birgitte Jappe Ross) spent time in Denmark this summer for a long overdue visit with family. Mindy Brown made it to Wisconsin to visit her family. The rest of us were able to keep busy with road trips, eating out and in with family and friends, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, going to small concert venues, etc. As you may recall from past Ellen Lodge articles, we are quite invested in making crafts for a craft fair that takes place in November. Last year the fair was cancelled and so was our biweekly craft sessions. Thankfully, Mindy Brown offered her home to us and we started our craft sessions again in June. We have been meeting twice a week and averaging 9 or 10 in attendance. It is so great to finally spend time with our Sisters, do some crafting, eating and just catching up on life. If all goes well, the craft fair will take place since it is our one and only fundraiser . We are thinking of alternative ideas just in case the covid variance closes down everything again.

Since the near future is quite tentative, our members are trying to plan for the future meetings: outside meetings, Lynne McEarchen’s clubhouse, Mindy Brown’s barn, Zoom/Google… Now, if we a have a bad storm and no one wants to get out on the roads, an online meeting is possible. Two years ago, no one would have even thought of that. We would have just cancelled that month’s meeting. Now we have alternative possibilities. There is so much devastating news going on around the world, and right now in the United States: Covid (still), the fires throughout the western states, and Hurricane Ida. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. Wishing you a safe journey through the rest of 2021 and the coming year.

Chris Jensen Hix