Eating lefse for a good cause

Diana Barstad of Marysville will be very busy every day this week. There is lefse to make, rommegrot to stir and pickled herring to prepare.

But when people come to the Sons of Norway hall in Everett this weekend, Barstad and about 100 other volunteers will be ready with many Scandinavian delights under the “Velkommen” sign above the door.

There will be food, music and entertainment 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Scandinavian Festival at Normanna Lodge in Everett.

It’s the biggest fund-raising event for the Sons of Norway, a volunteer organization that promotes and preserves the traditions of Norway and other Nordic countries.

Barstad has been a member of the Sons of Norway for more than 30 years. “The festival was an annual event when I came,” she said.

The money raised during the two-day event goes to local organizations including the Everett Gospel Mission, Deaconess Children’s Services and the Salvation Army.

Dance classes at Sons of Norway help fund four scholarships that are awarded annually. The group also sponsors a local Little League team.

“It’s incredibly special when others in the community recognize our work and pitch in,” said Pamela Grudin, a therapeutic riding instructor and grant writer for Equifriends.

Equifriends, an organization dedicated to improving the health and lives of people living with disabilities through horseback riding, is one of the nonprofit organizations that will benefit from the Sons of Norway Scandinavian Festival.

Staff at Equifriends see working with groups such as the Sons of Norway as a two-way street, Grudin said. If there was a need at an event such as the Scandinavian Festival for people to collect tickets, Equifriends could help out.

“We share and give back,” Grudin said.

Along with music and food, Scandinavian souvenirs will be for sale at the festival. Rubber velkommen (welcome) stamps, “Parking for Swedes Only” signs, and Uff Da socks are a sample of those items.

The Scandinavian Festival gets busy around lunchtime when men crowd the kitchen. They help with the rommegrot, a kind of sour-cream porridge that is served warm and has to be stirred almost constantly.

“It’s quite rich,” Barstad said. “There’s a lot of cream and sugar.”

There also will be demonstrations on how to make lefse, a flatbread made from flour and potatoes.

“If you enjoy eating, we have good food,” said Ardis Richards of Everett.

Visitors to the Scandinavian Festival might see some people dressed in bunads, the national dress of Norway. Many aprons, such as Gloria Gunderson’s, are hand-woven. Gunderson has more than one bunad. A North Osterdalen style from the 1780s is draped with a purse made from moose hide.

Although many members of the Sons of Norway are of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish descent, that’s not a membership requirement.

“You don’t have to be Scandinavian to join,” Barstad said.

Reporter Christina Harper: 425-339-3491 or harper@heraldnet.com.