Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.04.2015, Síða 2

2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • April 15 2015
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The Icelandic Canadian Club of British Columbia presented life
memberships to Kristjana and
Óðinn Helgason at its recent
Þorrablót on March 14, 2015.
Life membership is granted to
selected individuals who have
given a great deal of their time
and efforts to the ICCBC.
Jana and Óðinn were
married in Iceland and came
to Canada in the 1980s with
their three children, so Óðinn
could get an education as an
electrician. Óðinn was a dual
Canadian and Icelandic citizen.
Their three children are Óðinn
Freyr, Elizabet, and Dagny.
Within weeks of moving
to the Greater Vancouver area,
Óðinn was asked to serve on the
board of the Icelandic Canadian
Club. After a few months, he
found he was too busy studying
and working, so Jana took over.
That was in 1986 and she has
been on the board ever since.
In 1990, after attracting
new members and having
become very active, the board
decided to buy a headquarters
for the club and purchased
a large older home in New
Westminster with several loans
from a few members (all of
which were repaid). The point
was to use it as a meeting place
and rent the upstairs rooms for
income. They named it Iceland
House.
Much labor was needed
to upgrade the house and
Jana and Óðinn, with other
members of the club, set to
work. The upgrades included
rewiring, improved plumbing,
windows, repainting, sanding
bannisters, laying linoleum,
sanding wooden floors, and so
forth. Óðinn rewired a portion
of the house. The club owned
and operated Iceland House for
20 years before putting it up for
sale.
Jana was president at this
time, from 2009 to 2013,
so she oversaw much of the
organization involved. The
house was sold and, after
careful consideration, the
club decided to buy into the
Scandinavian Cultural Centre
and received a room there as
their office and meeting place.
The room had been used as a
soccer club change room and
it was in such poor condition
that everything had to be
ripped back to the walls. Many
members worked on pulling up
floors, jackhammering cement,
and pulling down interior walls
and the ceiling. Óðinn brought
in his whole crew and rewired
the ceiling and installed pot
lights. Jana was also president
when the club hosted Iceland’s
Olympic athletes and coaches,
which was a successful and
memorable event.
In 1996, Jana began
her involvement with the
children’s Christmas party;
now, the family basically
runs the event and Óðinn has
become their outstanding
Santa. Each year, participating
children watch through large
windows and they see Santa
approaching over the field. He
gets to the building but can’t
find his way in, even though
the children keep telling him
where the door is – he just
can’t find it. Eventually he
succeeds, to the excitement of
all the kids.
Jana, Óðinn, and their
family hosted June 17th
celebrations in their back yard
for many years and they are
deeply involved in the ICCBC’s
major events and activities:
Þorrablót, the Scandinavian
Midsummer Festival, and the
annual Christmas bake sale.
Jana has been a teacher for
cooking and knitting classes
while Óðinn taught language
classes. They have hosted
tour groups and visiting
dignitaries, participated in the
Icelandic choir, and Jana has
often represented the club at
the annual conventions of the
Icelandic National League of
North America. For all these
reasons and more, the ICCBC
has named them as life members.
From the ICCBC Newsletter.
At ten years of age, Kaela Brandson hit the pages of the Vancouver Sun.
The newspaper said: “Veteran
Sun Runner Kaela Brandson has
been running North America’s
largest 10-kilometre race for
half her life.” This year, Kaela
will be participating in her fifth
consecutive Sun Run with her
dad – last year she finished in
one hour and 21 minutes. She
hopes to shave ten minutes of
her time this year.
She began with the Shaw
Kids 1.5-kilometre Mini Sun
Run, toddling down the route
with her grandparents, Wayne
and Valerie Brandson, in tow.
She tackled the big race at six
years old when she ran and
walked with her dad, Grant
Brandson, and finished in two
hours and 15 minutes. Kaela,
also at six, first went up the
Grouse Grind, a grueling
2.5-kilometre hike up the side
of Grouse Mountain to an
elevation of 853 metres.
She says, “If you set your
mind to something, and you
work hard, you can do it.”
Photo and information courtesy
of the ICCBC Newsletter.
Kaela Brandson, 10,
already a veteran runner
Kristjana and Óðinn Helgason given life memberships
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ICCBC NEWSLETTER
Erika MacPherson’s documentary Heimþrá (In Thrall to Home) will
premiere at the Winnipeg Art
Gallery’s Muriel Richardson
Auditorium on Friday, April
17, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
The event will also feature
original music by Christine
Fellows and John K. Samson.
Spawned by her mother’s
deathbed tale, Erika’s
documentary is a quest through
disparate landscapes and
unsettling synchronicity. Years
before learning of the mystical
connection between her family
and the river Jölulsá á Brú
in Iceland, she unwittingly
unleashes a spell when she
casts her mother’s ashes into
that very raging glacial river.
Bewitched, Erika embarks on
an archeological dig into the
family archives and takes on
the onerous task of trawling
her mother’s hoard of diaries
searching for information
about the elusive deathbed
tale.
Enthralled by mythic
tales, she is hurtled back to
Iceland where, clad in her
grandmother’s Icelandic
costume and seeking to
return a family heirloom-
turned-talisman to the place
of its origin, she incants
legions of her grandmothers’
names across the wind-
torn countryside. The story
unfolds while Erika walks a
self-proclaimed pilgrimage
route along the boundary of
the historic Iceland Reserve
in Manitoba, where the
transmutation occurs – of
Heimþrá into home.
Heimþrá to premiere at
the Winnipeg Art Gallery