History of Ladies of Valhall (LOV)
Valhall Lodge, San Diego
As completed in April 2004 by Lorraine Tucker
Early in 1990 (January of February), I spoke with Karin Brevig about the possibilities of staring a new ladies group for women who, for one reason or another, could not attend the existing Norge Women’s Club, an auxiliary of Valhall Lodge. She said she had been thinking the same things as there were a number of working women in the lodge who could not attend middle-of-the-week daytime meetings. We decided to approach a few other ladies in the lodge; I remember talking with Mary Hovland and Jeannette Kurz, and Karin undoubtedly spoke with others.
At any rate, we met with a favorable response and announced at the lodge business meeting that we would be exploring the possibilities the following Saturday. I think 6-8 showed up and Jeannette and I presented the idea to them; we tentatively set up meetings 4 times a year, and by April 1990 we had a temporary chairperson, Mary Hovland.
We did not want to offend the existing Norge Women’s Club by announcing the formation of a new women’s auxiliary, as they had been very supportive of the lodge, supplying the kitchen of the hall with all the dinnerware, flatware, pots & pans and utensils and many other items in order to improve our facility so did not formally announce the formation of a new ladies group.
However, they were in the process of closing their organization and decided to disband at the end of 1990. This made it much easier for a new group to form, and Mary Hovland announced that all those who signed up to join this new group would be considered charter members. I think we had about 14 originally, and in April of 1991, we declared ourselves the new Valhall Lodge Auxiliary, or VLA.
Our first order of business was to elect a chairperson and secretary. Mary was unanimously chosen as Chairperson, and Lorraine Tucker became Secretary. The group present made the decision not to charge dues, so we had no Treasurer at first, as we had no funds! We realized that in order to exist we needed a fundraiser so decided to have a food and crafts table in the fall with the permission of the lodge which we received. Then we needed a Treasurer!
Lorraine acted as Secretary and Treasurer until our first treasurer Jean Jerpseth was elected. Our second treasurer was Peg Jacobsen, and now we have our third, Ella Backous! I remember the year that our crafts table turned into “Lille Butikken” (1993) and it has been growing better every year since that time.
One of our first major goals was to adopt a Mission Statement giving our allegiance to Valhall Lodge; pledging to uphold the constitution and bylaws of Sons of Norway and Valhall Lodge #25. This statement was accepted by the lodge, and we then came under the auspices and protection of their bylaws. In addition, we decided on a number of standing rules, which are enumerated in the secretary’s minutes.
Upon the suggestion by Karin Brevig, we were encouraged to adopt a project as one of our goals and so the idea of a cookbook began. A committee of three, Anne Høidal, Rhonda Brevig, and Lorraine Tucker, was formed. Several members submitted names for our book, and Jeannette Kurz’s suggestion of “LOV TO EAT” won our approval, and the little chubby Norwegian boy, “Smorbukk” rounded out the cover. Lorraine canvassed the members of the lodge for recipes, Rhonda made all the arrangements for the printer, and Anne had the hardest job of compiling, editing, making sure the recipes were as correct as could be, and proofing the galleys. Then, the job of selling had to be done, and after 3 years, our ladies had sold all 400 copies of the cookbook. It was our first great success!
In the meantime we decided to change our name! Mary H. presented the name, Ladies of Valhall, which sounded really nice, so within the year we became LOV.
In 1991, the lodge decided to sell the hall and the Ladies of Valhall began to meet at various members’ homes. We continued this arrangement until January 2001, when we had grown so large that many of our homes could not accommodate us. In 2001, we decided we had to find a new place to meet and after trying several restaurants, we settled on Denny’s at Navajo and Fletcher Parkway, as it had a large enough space and was in the same vicinity as the Masonic Hall. We had come a long way in ten years. We started with around 8 ladies; by charter time we were at 14 plus. In 1996, by our 5th anniversary, we numbered 24, and added 5 more that year.
Along the way, we had a few members go on inactive status—Jeannette Kurz, Thelma Johannesen, Lynn Lindebrekke, Alice McKinney, and Barbara Paulovich.
Three moved away: Ann Rem Wright, Alice McKinney, and Carmen Synnes, but one returned! Carmen Synnes moved back to San Diego.
Sadly, three members have passed away over the years: Barbara Lippman, Jean Jerpseth, and Marie Lintvedt. We will always remember them with love.
By our 10th anniversary in 2001, we had 35 members, and now at the beginning of 2004, we have a count of 42.
Our biggest project, by far, has been our Bunad Book, which has been exceedingly well received by everyone who has seen it, and it has enriched our treasury considerably—thanks to our author-in-residence, Anne Høidal. She also had a very active committee of six who helped out as much as they could, and then, we mustn’t forget our LOV members who have bought books for themselves and then sold more all over the country. Thanks to all who have helped, we have only about 195 left of our original order of 1,500 copies.
Over the years, we have assisted the lodge in numerous ways. Since the inception of our group, we have provided the lodge with Christmas stockings each year for the children, and later continued the Norwegian tradition of decorating bags and filling them with goodies when the stockings became too difficult to provide.
We have framed a Munch tie (it’s in the library); provided table flag decorations with the flags of the US, Canada, and Norway; purchased the materials for the banner that hangs back of the president’s podium and which was designed by Carmen Synnes and sewn and embroidered by her and several other members, including Mary Hovland; provided new shelves for the library books; preserved the lodge’s original regalia from 1912 in the form of a framed exhibit (also in the library); supported an SDSU student; and held a Friendship Tea for the women members of the lodge.
We have also hosted a special 17th of May luncheon celebration when our lodge date conflicted with the Greater San Diego Gala; contributed to the cost of decorations for three anniversaries of the lodge; donated to the SON scholarship fund in memory of departed members; contributed to the San Diego Mannskor monetarily and with baked good for special concerts; hosted the salmon dinner one year when the lodge was not able to recruit a separate committee; supported the MS walk sponsored by the lodge; donated to the Oklahoma Victims Fund and the recent Firefighters Disaster Fund (2003), made and provided new Christmas tree decorations for the lodge tree, donated $1,700 worth of bunad books to various libraries and dignitaries; held a Lille Butikken at the annual lodge salmon dinner from 1995 on; purchased material for the aprons for lodge social servers which were made by Susan Cody; assisted at the convention held in San Diego in 1994; sponsored the first Hardanger embroidery cultural class taught by Mary Hovland; assisted at the El Cajon International Friendship Festival each year; and chauffeured many lodge members to meetings and social events over the years.
This brings us to 2004, with plans perhaps to print a second edition of our Bunad Book, and also print another revised version of our LOV to Eat cookbook. Only time will tell.