Toronto | 2. The Toronto

from the Publisher’s Desk] [ Preserving Our Swedish Heritage

We need your support!

Swedish Press strives to create a high quality magazine for you, but the costs are considerable and ever-increasing. Please consider making a generous donation to help keep your publication, and Swedish heritage, alive. You’ll find a form on page 29 and 31, the inside back cover. Tack!

GRATTIS PÅ FÖDELSEDAGEN

Mar 22 Madeleine Merker, 12 år Mar 22 Marielle Merker, 12 år

Whether your Swedish is fluent or rusty, we hone your language skills by publishing some articles in Swedish. But never despair: you will find English translations online thanks to our valiant team of volunteer translators. Simply go to http://biolson. atspace.cc/swemail/ and you will find translations of all Swedish articles going as far back as to August 2007.

Noelle, Matthew and Kajsa Norman. Photo: Viktoria Finnberg We are Noelle, Matthew, and Kajsa Norman, the new publishers of the Swedish Press. It is a great privilege to continue the outstanding efforts of Joan and Claes Fredriksson to promote and preserve our Swedish heritage abroad.

COVID-19 has brought grief and difficulties for many families and industries and the same is true for ethno-cultural magazines like Swedish Press. In 2020, advertising revenues dried up and costs rose. Given these challenging times, one might ask what prompted us to take over the magazine. The simple answer is that we are passionate about preserving Swedish culture and couldn’t stand the thought that North America’s only Swedish monthly might disappear.

However, that is not the full answer. This past summer, we drove from our home in Ottawa to see family on Vancouver Island and took the opportunity to visit some of the Press’ readers along the way: Elinor Barr in Thunder Bay; Cookie Wicks in Kenora; Florence Anderson in Dryden; the Lyon-Andersons (Janet, Martin, Linnea, Isla and Clare), Marilyn Ekelund, and Elaine Hammerback Friesen in Winnipeg; Don and Trudy Sjoberg in Edmonton; Delores Hall, Viola Burkett, and Gail Johnson in Erickson; and Editor Peter Berlin in Nanaimo, to mention a few. Meeting outdoors at a safe social distance, they treated us to fantastic meals, music and stories. Sonja Lundstrom in Winnipeg even lent us a folkdräkt so that we could be dressed appropriately for Midsummer and organized socially distanced speed-dating interviews with Swedish descendants in the park outside her house. Some drove for great distances to meet us and share their stories.

From dance clubs to book clubs, from churches to cultural societies, from language classes to traditional dishes, the dedication to all good things Swedish was awe-inspiring. Knowing that there are thousands of Swedes and Swedish descendants across North America who care as deeply about our heritage as we do, we decided to take the leap, and do everything in our power to shepherd the press to its 100th anniversary and beyond.

On the inside back cover, you’ll find more information about our new sponsorship program – “Friends of the Press” – and how you can help us keep North America’s only Swedish monthly alive and thriving.

We thank you for your support and look forward to visiting your community soon. Allt gott!

Kajsa Norman Publisher Kajsa@Swedishpress.com March 2021