The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1977, Page 47

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
45
ICELANDIC LANGUAGE AND
CULTURAL CAMP AT HUSAVICK, 1977
By Kristine Perlmutter
The Icelandic Language and Cultural
Camp ran from July 23 — July 30 at the
Sunrise Lutheran Camp near Husavick,
Manitoba. A total of seventy-six
campers participated. Classes were of-
fered each day in the Icelandic language,
Icelandic music and drama, arts and
crafts on an ethnic theme, sport and
recreation, and swimming. In addition,
a period of each day was designated as
time set aside for something “special”.
An example of an activity that was used
as a “special” was a talk on the early
history of New Iceland given by Ken
Kristofferson, of Gimli. The campers
were very interested in the stories which
Ken had to tell and were also interested
in looking through some of the old pic-
tures which he had brought along.
Evening activities were planned with a
view to providing interesting entertain-
ment which would teach the campers
more about some aspects of their Ice-
landic heritage. A sing-song led by Len
and Karen Vopntjord, and stories told
by author W. D. Valgardson were en-
joyed by all. Betel resident Helga Jakob-
son gave interesting information about
the differences between life today and
the life she knew as a young girl. The
large number of questions which her
reminiscences aroused showed how
fascinated the young people were at
hearing about what life was like in this
area years ago. Another program which
was very successful involved a series of
demonstrations. Mrs. Margaret Bjorns-
son, of Fraserwood, carded raw Ice-
landic wool and demonstrated spinning.
Margaret Saemundson, of Arborg, and
Jenny Arnason, of Winnipeg, demon-
strated the making of ponnukokur.
Jenny also did a rullupylsa. Sigga Bene-
dictson, of Gimli, showed the campers
howto make kleinur. The children really
enjoyed these demonstrations. They
were allowed to make some of these
items themselves and did a lot of sam-
pling as the demonstrations were going
on. Vinarterta was the snack food that
night. Fortunately, only 2 or 3 had
stomach aches after all the sampling.
Other evening programs included a
slide show given by Steinthor Gudbjarts-
son and the movie They Shouldn’t Call
Iceland Iceland, the showing of which
was made possible by Jon Asgeirsson,
editor of Logberg-Heimskringla. Skits
and a dance provided the entertainment
for the final evening.
The main emphasis of the camp, of
course, was on having students parti-
cipate in a wide variety of activities
where the use of the Icelandic language
was encouraged. If nothing else, it did
generate a great deal of interest in things
Icelandic among those who participated.
♦ ♦ +
IN THE NEWS
Dr. Robert H. Thorlakson of Winni-
peg, who has been Provincial Commis-
sioner for the St. John Ambulance
Brigade of Manitoba, has been named
Provincial President of the St. John
Council for Manitoba.