Lögberg-Heimskringla - 03.12.2004, Blaðsíða 9

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 3. desember 2004 • 9
..ffiiMiV. L
The Snorri Program
started it all
About seven years ago
Almar was formally connected
to the collaboration with the
descendants of the Icelandic
immigrants in North America.
“This was through my involve-
ment in designing and promot-
ing the Snorri Program. I
frankly admit that I was igno-
rant and only vaguely knew
that the siblings of my great
grandmother left Dýrafjörður
in the period 1874 - 1890. Now
I have found some of my rela-
tives and continue to re-estab-
lish family bonds.
“These years are like a new
dimension in the lives of
myself and my wife Anna
Björk. We instantly fell for the
spontaneous friendship and
hospitality wherever we have
travelled. Actually, it is largely
thanks to a coincidence in 1991
when, at an intemational con-
ference in Washington, D.C., I
met my friend and colleague
Ernest Stefanson from Gimli.
Eventually this led to us com-
ing to the Icelandic Festival in
Manitoba in 1998 and since
then I have been deeply
involved in furthering the col-
laboration between Iceland and
ethnic Icelanders in North
America. We have many new
and very dear friends through
this and I am filled with grati-
tude for having had the oppor-
tunity to be a part of this great
movement.”
In the last few years the
connection between Iceland and
the “New World” has strength-
ened a lot. The INL of Iceland,
or ÞFÍ, is an important link in
this connection.
“ÞFÍ can and should play a
very crucial role in tying the
associations of descendants of
Icelanders in North America
with Iceland,” says Almar. “We
are a sister organization of
Þjóðrœknisfélag íslendinga í
Vesturheimi, INL of North
America, and work towards the
same goals. In addition to that,
we in INL Iceland emphasize
that we wish to work directly
with any organization and insti-
tution that wishes to strengthen
the ties between Iceland and
people of Icelandic descent in
North America.”
Visits becoming more
and more popular
How can ÞFÍ be stronger in
Iceland and how can it reach to
more people?
“We have a very important
role in educational and informa-
tion activities. The last few years
historian Jónas Þór has held two
courses every winter on the his-
tory of emigration. These cours-
es have been well attended and
after the first course activity
many participants showed great
interest in following up by visit-
ing settlements of the Icelandic
emigrants. Such tours, which we
call the SAGA tours, continue,
and in addition we have
increased our tour activities and
we note an ever growing inter-
est.”
Almar has been instmmen-
tal in breathing new life into the
ÞFÍ and he has proposed some
plans for the near future.
“We have held meetings in
the north and east of Iceland
which is a very logical new
activity, in light of the fact that a
great majority of the emigrants
were ffom these areas. We also
took the important step to sign a
formal agreement between INL
Iceland and the Emigration
Centre at Hofsós.
“We are also developing a
good working relationship with
Þjóðmenningarhús — The
Culture House, or National
Centre of Cultural Heritage. The
expansion of the Snorri Program
to cover other age groups has
also proven to be very success-
ful. The Snorri Plus program
will therefore continue and
hopefully grow. Then of course
the ‘people meet people’ activi-
ties in organizing tours to vari-
ous destinations in the United
States and Canada is of major
importance. We focus on meet-
ing with people wherever we
visit and have a lkajfisopi'
together. We are particularly
fond of the visits to homés for
the elderly and regard those as
highlights of the tours.
“Similarly we would like to
be increasingly visited by groups
from the same areas. Snorri Plus
is of course one such organized
activity, but the Homecoming
2004 in the fall was unfortunate-
ly not as well attended as had
been hoped. However those who
did participate were an excellent
group and we thoroughly
enjoyed their visit.”
Tours with Icelanders from
Iceland and visits to settlements
of the emigrants from Iceland
are of vital importance, accord-
ing to Almar, and he wants to
expand their reach.
“We are systematically
entering new areas. In June this
year we organized a tour to the
west coast and visited Seattle,
Blaine, Bellingham, Point
Roberts, Vancouver and
Victoria. This was a great suc-
cess. New contacts were made
and others strengthened.
“In 2005 we will organize
new tours to Saskatchewan and
Alberta and another one to Utah.
It is long overdue that we in INL
Iceland visit the settlements in
Saskatchewan and Alberta and
we note very great interest in the
tours.
“There will be a celebration
in June 2005 to commemorate
150 years since the first
Icelanders settled in Spanish
Fork, Utah. We think this is a
worthy occasion to start a tour
activity to Utah under INL
Iceland.
“We will also continue to
organize an annual tour to the
celebrations and festivals in
Mountain and Gimli, and in con-
junction with that visit settle-
ments in Minnesota, Wisconsin,
North Dakota and Manitoba. We
will continue expanding, and
one day we will hopefully be
able to organize tours to Ontario
and also Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland and other desti-
nations.”
First Lutheran Church
580 Victor Street
Winnipeg R3G 1R2
204-772-7444
www.mts.net/~flcwin
Worship with us
Sundays 10:30 a.m.
Pastor Michael Kurtz

cM'zo.Ca. Úi-Cand cMoiLtarj
Descendants and friends of
Hecla Island Heritage Inc.
Assisting in the
developmcnt of Hecla's
Icelandic Mantime Village
We welcome.
suitable artifacts
Visit the
Museum & Village

Edmonton 780-424-2277
Toll free 1-800-642-3838
Vísít m on the web at htfp:llwww,!h-ínc,m