There will be a triple celebration in Markerville on April 23.
The proud Icelandic community in Red Deer County is marking the 30th season of the Historic Markerville Creamery Museum and the 10th anniversary of the restored Fensala Hall, the oldest community hall in Alberta still in active use.
However, the highlight of the evening is to honour the 125th anniversary of the formation of the Icelandic Ladies Aid Vonin (ILAV).
“Vonin is an Icelandic word that means hope, so when the pioneers came they needed a lot of hope. They assisted people with food or whatever they needed, if they needed help in the early days,” said Bernice Andersen, special events coordinator with the Stephan G. Stephansson Icelandic Society.
The celebration will begin at 5 p.m. at Fensala Hall with a fundraising dinner. Up to 100 citizens and dignitaries will be attending, including Ambassador Hjálmar W. Hannesson, consul general of Iceland who is coming from his office in Winnipeg; Red Deer-Mountain View MP Earl
Dreeshen; Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Don MacIntyre; Red Deer County mayor Jim Wood; Carolyn Josephson Yu – the current Alberta Fjallkona; Richard Lorenz, Red Deer County councillor for Division 5; and current ILAV president Dorothy Murray.
The IKAV was founded as a ladies aid society on Nov. 26, 1891 in Calgary, which was then part of the North-West Territories, by a group of Icelandic women who had settled in the area after arriving from Iceland via North Dakota with their families. Five years later the group's original members settled in the Markerville area.
“They fundraised at social events to raise money and they would provide for the needy. They were instrumental in the organizing of the building of both the church and the hall here,” said Andersen.
“They got builders together, promoted, helped form the Fensala Stock Company, and that is how they got the funds to buy the wood to build the hall in 1902, and the same thing occurred at the church. They were always behind the building of the church.”
Along with being instrumental in the building of the Fensala Hall in 1903 and the Markerville Lutheran Church in 1907, Vonin members also tended to the Tindastoll Cemetery grounds, fundraised at Markerville's annual Icelandic picnic, donated to local projects, and purchased Christmas gifts for local seniors.
IKAV members are still active today with the baking of Icelandic delights for the museum's Kaffistofa coffee shop and delivering cookies to seniors during the Christmas season.
The creamery museum opens for the summer season on May 14. It will then stay open every day throughout the summer until the end of the September Labour Day weekend.
For more information on the April 23 celebrations, contact Andersen at 403- 728-3595 or email [email protected]
For more on Historic Markerville visit the website www.historicmarkerville.com
Bernice Andersen
"Vonin is an Icelandic word that means hope, so when the pioneers came they needed a lot of hope. They assisted people with food or whatever they needed, if they needed help in the early days."
