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October 2, 2010
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Speakers: Dave Thoen
Topic: Life with Type I Diabetes – Before and After a Clinical Trial Islet Transplant
Dave will provide his story of living with Type I diabetes for over 20 years, which includes some very high moments and very low moments. He will also describe participating in a clinical trial to get an islet transplant – the waiting, the uncertainty, the transplants, and the results.
Dave Thoen was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes age the age of 23, what he considered the “prime time of his life.” The diagnosis was a huge surprise that brought many changes to his life. His early upbringings in a small Scandinavian family and community gave him the background to work very hard and be extremely diligent at controlling his disease. This hard work had many positive consequences, but at the same time significant negative consequences.
Dave qualified for a clinical trial at the Schulz Diabetes Institute in 2006, and in 2008 and 2009, Dave was the recipient of two islet transplants. These transplants have changed Dave and his family’s life significantly as it relates to the care, treatment, and living with diabetes.
Dave was an Olympic Torch Bearer for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, a 2002 Hamline University “Making the World a Better Place Award” winner, a Deloitte & Touche LLP Community Impact Award winner in 2003, and an inaugural recipient of the Twin Cities Marathon Medtronic Global Heroes Award in 2006.
Dave and his wife of over 20 years, Denise, live in Bloomington with their sons Reese (15) and Riley (13).
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November is our annual fundraising month.
Please consider making a donation to our scholarship fund!
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November 6, 2010 |
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Speakers: Marian Elmquist
Topic: Ski for Light
Ski for Light traces its roots to Norway and to the Norwegian event for blind and mobility impaired cross-country skiers called the Ridderrenn, which was begun in 1963 by blind musician Erling Stordahl. That same year, Olav Pedersen emigrated to Colorado. Some years later, Olav was inspired to create a similar event in the U.S. In 1975 the first Race for Light was held in Summit Country, Colorado with support from Norway and from the Sons of Norway. Ski for Light will hold its 36th annual International Event in early February, 2011 and will be attended by nearly 250 skiers, volunteer guides and other volunteers. Among the group will be some 20 Norwegians who attend each year.
Marion Elmquist is the retired COO of a small technology business that provided services for meetings and conferences. Prior to that, she served in executive editorial capacities for business magazines, based in Chicago, and worked in marketing and advertising. She holds degrees from the University of Iowa and Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois.
But, her real passions lie in skiing and in volunteer work. Always an active volunteer, Marion became involved with Ski for Light in 1992 and has been a volunteer guide ever since. She became a member of the SFL board and its executive committee in 1998 as secretary. Since then she has served as vice president and has chaired several committees. She was elected president in February, 2008.
Ski for Light is based on the Norwegian program for visually and mobility impaired cross country skiers, and Marion has guided at the Ridderrenn for 15 years and has led the SFL group to Norway for the past 10 years.
Marion now lives in her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, and also teaches Alpine skiing parttime in Vail, Colorado, and serves on a number of other boards.
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To make our December meeting more festive,
consider wearing a bunad if you have one.
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December 4, 2010
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Speaker: Torild Homstad
Topic: Oslo International Summer School
Torild is an administrator of the North American Office of ISS and teaches in the Department of Norwegian at St. Olaf College. She completed her dissertation in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures (Germanic Studies) from the University of Minnesota where she wrote about the work of the Norwegian author Nini Roll Anker, author of Kirken, an original for the play Borders, performed for the first time during the Peace Prize Forum at St. Olaf College in February, 2000. Torild is an avid reader of women's literature, feminist literary theory, and juvenile literature and has done extensive research in writing (especially process writing) in second language pedagogy. At the ISS, Torild handles admissions for students from the United States and Canada.
The ISS is an academic center for learning in an international context, and a forum for fostering intercultural understanding aimed at developing and conveying knowledge and promoting understanding between people from different cultures. This dual purpose is reflected in the ISS motto: "Six Weeks of Academic Achievement and International Good Will". The first summer session for English-speaking foreign students at the University of Oslo was organized and held in 1947 for American students as an expression of gratitude for educational opportunities provided for Norwegian students in the USA during and after World War II. In the 1950s the number of non-American students increased steadily, and in keeping with this development, the name of the school was changed in 1958 from the Summer School for American Students to the International Summer School.
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January 8, 2011 |
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Performers: Claire Hellweg, Amber Dolphin and Jieun Kim
Topic: French Horn Concert
The program will consist of:
Introduction and Allegro, op. 30 Johan Kvandal (1919-1999)
Horn Lokk, Sigurd Berge (1929-2002)
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano, op. 110 Trygve Madsen (b. 1940)
Various Norwegian Folk Tunes, violin
Born in Minnesota, Claire Hellweg began the horn at age ten and later studied with David Kamminga of the Minnesota Orchestra. In 2005 she received a degree in Horn Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with Douglas Hill. She has participated in a variety of music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, Opera in the Ozarks, Bar Harbor Brass Camp, Madeline Island Music Camp, Instrumenta Oaxaca, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Claire has performed in twelve countries with various groups such as the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, the Yucatan Symphony Orchestra and the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra, of which she was co-principal horn.
In addition, Claire loves working with young hornists. She has consistently maintained a private studio, working with students of all ages, and founded a Horn Outreach program in collaboration with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. She has been Instructor of Horn and Chamber Music at the Center of Music Education in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico and Professor of Horn at the University of Guanajuato School of Music. Most recently, she collaborated with a new youth orchestra program in Leon, Mexico called “Music, the Hope of Life,” a music program for low-income children. Claire is also an avid writer. She has been a published author in The Horn Call, the journal of the International Horn Society, and has recently had published a Spanish translation of Douglas Hill’s book, “Warm-Ups and Maintenance Sessions for the Horn Player.” Currently, Claire is pursuing a master’s degree with Frøydis Ree Wekre at the Norwegian Academy of Music with the support of grants from the Norway-America Association, the American-Scandinavian Foundation and the John Dana Archbold Scholarship from The Nansen Fund. Besides playing the horn, Claire enjoys salsa dancing, learning languages, and practicing yoga.
Amber Dolphin is a freelance musician in the Madison area. Ms. Dolphin received her Bachelors in Music from Luther College in 2004 and her Masters of Music in Violin Performance from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2006. Most recently she has completed a Performance Certificate at Northern Illinois University, studying classical and jazz violin. She loves all styles of music, including classical, fiddle, jazz and Latin. These days, Dolphin can be found playing in local orchestras, Quinteto Yzafa (tango) and Charanga Agozá (charanga). She has been adjunct faculty at the University of Wisconsin – Platteville and Beloit College and currently teaches for Music Makers of Madison, and privately from her home.
Born in Seoul , Korea, Jieun Kim has performed as a collaborative pianist with various artists and has maintained a demanding performance schedule. Her artistic strength in both chamber music and vocal music has led to appearances at numerous recitals and concerts in Korea, France , Finland and the United States.
Jieun Kim recently received her DMA degree in collaborative piano and coaching at the University of Minnesota, where she studied under professors Timothy Lovelace, Noriko Kawai and Margo Garrett. Jieun Kim holds B.M and M.M degrees in piano performance from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea as well as an M.M degree in collaborative piano and coaching from the University of Minnesota.
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February 5, 2011 |
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Speaker: Debbie Miller
Topic: Tradition and Traveling Recipes
Debbie Miller is a public historian currently working as a reference librarian at the Minnesota Historical Society library. She has used her master’s degree in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Minnesota often during her 3 decades of work at the Minnesota Historical Society. She has also collected cookbooks since she was 16 and is an enthusiastic amateur cook After spending several years collecting and donating more than a thousand Minnesota cookbooks to the Minnesota Historical Society’s collections, where they are available for research and recipe inspiration, she moved on to collecting Norwegian-American cookbooks. Those cookbooks have been the basis of research for several talks and articles, including part of the talk you’ll hear today. Deb didn’t grow up in a family where Norwegian-American foodways were the norm. The talk chronicles her adventures in learning more about them.
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March 5, 2011 |
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Speakers: Janine Kosel and Sue Flanders
Topic: Knitting
The book Norwegian Handknits: Heirloom Designs from Vesterheim is the culmination of knitting designs, stories and even some recipes from co-designers Sue Flanders and Janine Kosel along with the treasures housed in Vesterheim Museum located in Decorah Iowa. Sue and Janine are long-time enthusists of fibers, knitting specifically, history, stories and all things Vesterheim. They began taking classes there in the early 80's but it was a trip in 2004 to take a band weaving class that they were invited to view some of the back collection at Vesterheim. In that one hours time, the itch to create and re-create some of what they saw took form. Sue and Janine will take you through some of the process as well as discuss through slides and garments from the book, how this Norwegian knitting book came to be.
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April 2, 2011 |
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Speaker: Jeannette Henrikssen
Topic: Slideshow of travels to Iceland, Greenland and New Foundland - In the Wake of the Vikings
Jeannette Henrikssen had the privilege of being a Group Leader for a very special tour group that followed the footsteps of our Viking ancestors.
Jeannette will show photographs and talk about aspects of the trip relating to the Vikings, modern day Inuits in Greeland and Canada, as well as what life was like for three weeks on a former Swedish icebreaker ship.
Starting in Iceland, the group visited various Viking sites (one thought to be the birthplace of Leif Eriksson) after which they continued by ship across the Denmark Strait and around the southern tip of Greenland stopping at different Viking settlements and other interesting historical sites on the way. Crossing the Davis Strait, they finished on the east coast of Canada with a visit to L’Anse aux Meadows, an archaeological site on the northern tip of Newfoundland discovered in 1960 by Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, and believed to have a possible connection to the attempted colony of Vinland by Leif Eriksson in 1003.
Jeannette Henrikssen is a freelance web and graphic designer who has been a long time member of Lakselaget and very active member of the Norwegian community in the Twin Cities. She attended a Norwegian Folkehøgskole outside Trondheim before attending the University of Minnesota and graduating with a Major in Chinese Language and Minor in Anthropology. Later, she lived outside Bergen and studied web design and computer software and administration.
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May 7, 2011
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Speaker: Judy Lysne, CEO of Lifeworks Services
Topic: Lifeworks Services, a nonprofit organization that helps people with disablities live fuller lives that are integrated into the flow of community experience
Lifeworks, whose mission is to serve our community and people with disabilities as we live and work together, is a Minnesota a nonprofit organization that helps people with disabilities live fuller lives that are integrated into the flow of community experience. Lifeworks collaborates with employers, volunteers, and government agencies to create expanded opportunities for people with disabilities.
For more than 15 years, Lifeworks has had a learning exchange with professionals in Denmark and Norway who provide services to people with disabilities. Staff and clients have visited each other's programs over 20 times since 1994. Judy will share the story of a 2009 trip by Lifeworks clients to the Grand Prix of Handicapped Bands, a Danish music festival featuring 10 bands comprised of people with disabilities as well as the story of a 2010 trip where the Lifeworks All Star Band, comprised of Lifeworks clients, performed at the Harvest Festival in Aalborg, Denmark. Judy will also provide a short comparison of services to people with disabilities in Scandinavia and in the United States, as well as what the organizations have learned about each other.
Ms. Lysne began her career with Lifeworks in 1973 and was named president and chief executive officer of Lifeworks in 2000 after serving as co-president since 1994. Ms. Lysne holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.
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Member's Only Picnic
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