Hello everyone, I wish you all a wonderful fall and hope you are enjoying the crisp air and beautiful weather.
Looking ahead there are few things I wish to mention. The Icelandic Association of Chicago is holding its Annual General Meeting in
We also have the annual Christmas Tree decoration at the
Katrin Heidar
From the Editor
The summer passed with a great speed and now, it suddenly is Autumn. Nature is getting ready to tuck itself in yet again and sleep soundly until next spring. I have always loved this time of year even though I loved it better when I didn’t have any leaves to rake but
With autumn comes also darkness, romantic candle lights, woolly socks and trick or treating. Children changes into all sorts of creatures who, lo and behold, all love candy.
If we don’t enjoy life we aren’t living it so I’m going to try my best of enjoying myself this Autumn. There are many things one can do and one thing I will be sure of doing; walking hand in hand with my husband in beautiful downtown Chicago and enjoy the Festival of Lights because we never, have enough Festival nor lights in our lives.
Take care and contact me via swanyiceland@comcast.net if you have something you want to contribute.
Swany.
Association Affairs
General Meeting
The IAC General Meeting will be held October 20th 2007 at Daruma Japanese Restaurant, 1823 W.Golf Road, Schaumburg,Illinois. The meeting starts at 6pm. Please join us with all your great ideas and concerns. All non-board members of the association are as well very welcome.
Christmas tree decoration
The time has come again to think about Christmas. We will be putting up our tree at the Museum of Science and Industry, Sunday, November 11th at 1pm and we will be taking it down on Sunday January 20th at 1pm. Mark your calendars and remember; THE MORE, THE MERRIER.
..AND THIS HAPPENED..
The Icelandic Independence Day, June 17th
Instead of celebrating our 63rd Independence Day on June 17th we used the opportunity and met up at Vasa Park on R31 in S-Elgin,on June 16th where our fellow Scandinavians where celebrating Mid Summer. A fair share of fair Icelanders and their families showed up to spend the day, enjoying themselves in each others company. And we did prove that size doesn’t matter and that we can sing and perform, just like the rest of Scandinavia!
Swany Getchell
Review of the Biggest Icelandic Open So Far!
The third Greater Chicago Icelandic Open was held at Indian Boundary golf course Sunday July 29th. This time we almost sold out with 20 players. It was a great day, sunny but not too hot even though some players did get very thirsty at times J First place winners with a score of 32 were Martin Brunback and Adam Jordan. Second place took Goran Aronson and Anders Singdahlsen also with a great score, 34. And, third place a husband and wife team, Natashja and Oskar Berg. The winner of the longest drive was Martin Brunback who got one our golf lesson from a PGA pro. Closest to the pin for a one night stay at the Wyndham hotel down-town Chicago was Marc Smith, and, the longest putt did go to Martin Brunback who won ½ hour lesson from a golf pro. Every player got Callaway Hot X golf balls and a 10% gift certificate to the Golf Galaxy. Last but not least, Joni and Larry Shaw won the “most improved team” award. Everyone was really happy and already signed up for next year. We are looking to change the format to a Best Ball from Texas Scramble but would still play 9 holes. The date for 2008 Greater Chicago Icelandic Open will be announced early next year but any new teams should reserve their spot.
Happy Halloween
Einar Steinsson
Review of the annual Scandinavian Day
It was a perfect weather day for the annual Scandinavian Day event on September 9th along the Fox River at Vasa Park in South Elgin. The beautiful day brought out many guests. The Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and Finns were well represented with traditional costumes and food booths. There were also many rows of vendors.
The Viking Encampment was a big hit again this year. They brought with them a replica of a Viking ship, costumes and great games for the children. They also carried the Icelandic flag in the opening ceremony. There were pony rides for kids as well as games.
The entertainment was really fine. The program included The Nordic Folk Dancers of Chicago(Linnea Johnson, (773)-262-5943 Chicago, IL nordic94@aol.com), Ole and Sven from Wisconsin, Maria Mannesto - the Finlandia Foundation Performer of the Year 2007, The Finnish Kantele Players and the Chicago Nordic Choir.
If you have suggestions regarding Icelandic participation for next year please contact Joni Shaw - Ammajoni@cs.com - or any Chicago Icelandic Association board member. We need to be thinking about it now as time passes so quickly and soon the event will be upon us again.
Also, if anyone has the ability/interest to prepare an ad which we can enter, regarding our association, in the Scandinavian Day booklet, please contact Joni. Just generally speaking, it would be good to have an advertisement prepared for many other occasions as well.
I submit this article as the Icelandic representative on the Vasa Park board. I solicit your input and help in this worthwhile venture of keeping the Scandinavian cultures alive. Our heritage is unique and rich in history and deserves representation.
Joni Shaw
Whole Food Market
For the longest time, I have been waiting for Icelandic products to show up at the shelves at the Whole Food Market in Palentine.,IL but nothing ever shows up. Tired of waiting and tired of being told time and time again soon, I called the Regional Office of Whole Food Market in the Mid-West where I was told that it was not on the agenda of putting Icelandic products on the shelves. But if Icelandic products were desired, one would only have to place an order at the customer service desk and desired products would be shipped in.
Swany Getchell
