Lögberg-Heimskringla - 28.01.2005, Qupperneq 4

4 » Lögberg-Heimskringla » Friday 28 January 2005
Iceland House in Vancouver tells it all
Steinþór Guðbjartsson
Managing Editor
Recently I got an e-mail
from a post-graduate
student in Ireland. The
woman said that she was con-
ducting research on various im-
migrant groups in the United
States, and was wondering if I
would have any information on
people of Icelandic descent liv-
ing in North America. “It would
be great if I could meet anyone
still involved in the Icelandic
community,” Kelly Fitzgerald
concluded.
Kelly would be happy to
hear that wherever I go in Can-
ada or the United States, I meet
people of Icelandic descent.
And not only that, most of them
are very active in the Icelandic
community and they have ac-
complished a lot.
Heritage Day
in Winnipeg
a success
Winnipeg’s Icelandic Cana-
dian Frón club held its second
annual Heritage Day Brunch on
Sunday, January 9 at the Scan-
dinavian Cultural Centre.
The Icelandic Canadian
Frón, the Jón Sigurðsson Chap-
ter of the IODE, The Icelandic
Canadian magazine, the New
Iceland Heritage Museum and
Lögberg-Heimskringla set up
displays. Roughly 65 people at-
tended the event.
Frón president Serena Goe-
bel was pleased with the turn-
out. “Next year I would really
iike to see some new faces,”
she said. “Perhaps the people
who came this year could bring
family who are not really in-
volved in any of the clubs. Our
members — in all clubs — are
getting older and the younger
generations need to see what
we are all about. Maybe next
year we could have some Snor-
ri alumni.”
PHOTO: ROBERT ASGEIRSSON
Iceland House in Vancouver,
When I got the aforemén-
tioned e-mail, I had just been
visiting people of Icelandic de-
scent in the greater Vancouver
area — what a dedicated group
of people from all walks of life.
Just like other groups of people
of Icelandic descent all over
North America, from coast to
coast.
Since the literary society
“Ingólfur” was established in
Vancouver in 1908, the name
of the club has been changed
twice. It has been The Icelan-
dic Canadian Club of British
Columbia since 1967. The club
has about 500 paid members
and is the biggest club within
the Icelandic National League
of North America.
In 1990, the club members
bought a house and named it
Iceland House. It is located
at the comer of 6th Street and
lOth Avenue in New Westmin-
ster. There the club maintains a
library and Icelandic commu-
nity archives, there it holds Ice-
landic language classes, there
the members have their board
meetings and other gatherings,
and there they plan their eight-
page newsletter 10 times a year.
To cover the cost of the house
the board has a live-in man-
ager who rents out five upstairs
guest rooms.
This is a home away from
home, as they say, close to
shopping, theatres, bus service,
SkyTrain stations, the intema-
tional border, the ferry terminal
to Vancouver Island, rail sta-
tions, the Vancouver intema-
tional airport and downtown
Vancouver. The activities seem
to be endless, and the fact that
the members bought a house
for the club tells a great story.
They care about their Icelandic
heritage and they work on it.
In her e-mail, Kelly says
that she plans to visit the Mid-
west of the U.S. in March. She
should be able to see people of
Icelandic descent in the area,
and if in Vancouver, I would ad-
vise her to visit Iceland House
and meet members of The Ice-
landic Canadian Club of Brit-
ish Columbia. That would be a
good source for her research.
PHOTO: STEINPÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
Keeping the family together
Every year, Icelander Þórður Reykdal visits his daughter Hildur Reykdal and granddaugh-
ter Þórhildur Elva Reykdal. Elva emigrated to Canada in 1983 and her mother in 1992.
They live in Mission, BC. Elva is on the board of the Icelandic Canadian Club of British
Columbia and is in charge of membership. Hildur is the Past-President of the club.
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