As Fedraheimen Lodge No. 140 of the Sons of Norway approaches its 100th birthday next March, members issued an invitation for others interested in Scandinavian culture to join up for the celebration of the century.

According to president Ted Seim and longtime member Donna Tice, the organization has no requirement for Norwegian ancestors and no initiation ceremonies involving lutefisk force-feeding. Lutefisk is lye-soaked cod and a traditional Scandinavian delicacy. However, Tice and Seim defended the new and improved lutefisk prepared for their annual dinner by Norskstar Seafood of Whitefish.

“No more lye,” Seim said. “It doesn’t have the smell and odor.”

Tice said the owner’s secret recipe takes the infamous fish dish from awful to awesome. And she was a hard sell, bringing memories of lutefisk abuse from her childhood.

“My aunt and uncle used to make it and it was like slime on the plate and they would just gobble it down,” she said with a laugh. “Stunk so bad that you couldn’t be in the same room with it. So believe me, it was awful!”

For almost a century, shared stories like this have attracted people of all ethnic backgrounds to gather to learn about and work to preserve Nordic culture. Held on the first Saturday of the month, evening meetings include an educational program as well as club business.

The group recently gave two $3,000 scholarships to local high school students.

Fellowship and good food remain highlights of the gatherings in the Buffalo Room at Buffalo Hill Terrace in Kalispell.

“A couple of families do the food each month,” Seim said. “We have sandwiches and cookies and maybe fruit and cheese, depending on what they want to do. Then we have a social thing.”

Although the lodge suspends meetings in the busy summer months, good times continue with up to 80 Sons of Norway members celebrating the traditional Scandinavian summer solstice holiday. They hold a picnic in Lawrence Park where they present their third scholarship, a $2,000 award, to a Flathead Valley Community College student pursuing a four-year degree.

Tice said the parties in Norway go until all hours with their 24 hours of daylight.

“They’ll have a bonfire that goes on until midnight,” she said. “It’s a huge celebration. They’ll play soccer until 2:30, 3:30 or 4 in the morning.”

After celebrating summer solstice, lodge members organize to go Libby for Nordicfest in September. Seim said they usually go on the Saturday of the three-day celebration scheduled for Sept. 7-9 this year. They mingle with other Sons of Norway lodges, including Libby and the one from Poulsbo, Wash.

The Flathead Valley lodge has a special relationship with Poulsbo since Washington members took charge of a treasured piece of their Sons of Norway history.

“The local men from around here built a Viking ship ... large enough to hold 10 to 12 people,” Tice said. “A year ago we donated it to the Poulsbo lodge because we no longer had a place to keep it.”

As a special treat, the Washington group brought the ship up for the Nordicfest parade last year. Decorated with shields along its side, the arching ship begins and ends with a dragon, thanks to a well-known artist and longtime Sons of Norway member and honest-to-goodness native of Norway.

“Arvid Kristoffersen carved the dragon head and the tail for the boat,” Tice said.

After Nordicfest, Sons of Norway women roll up their sleeves in October and get elbow deep in flour to bring Nordic cooking to the community through classes at the community college. The club held a class on how to make lefse (potato flatbread) for the first time last year, headed up by Tice and other volunteers.

“They physically did the process,” Seim said. “They peeled the potatoes and rolled and mashed them.”

According to Tice, the two-day course filled quickly and had a waiting list of students. This fall, the lefse class returns and a one-day class on Scandinavian cookies has been added.

“We’ll have three different stations and we’ll do krumkake, rosettes and almond lace cookies,” Tice said. “What we’re trying to do is pass this heritage on.”

Classes provide a good warm-up for members who help the women of the Methodist church make lefse for their holiday bazaar and then make more lefse for the annual lutefisk dinner at the Northridge Lutheran Church. In spite of its reputation, the traditional dish draws a crowd of members and their invited guests.

“We have about 100 or more people at that,” Seim said.

In past years, the dinner was held at the former Sons of Norway Hall in Kalispell where Seim said it drew 300 to 500 people. The organization made the difficult decision to sell the aging building a few years ago.

“It was too expensive to keep maintaining it,” he said. “We would not be able to do the scholarships now without the sale of the building. The interest we get off the money is how we pay for the scholarships.”

Sons of Norway’s first building remains in Somers, where Fedraheimen Lodge 140 was first organized. On March 17, 1913, the first 25 members were initiated.

In the early days, the organization provided support and communications to newly arriving immigrants.

Quite a few Norwegian settlers ended up in Somers working at the mill, according to a lodge history written by Shirley Amdam McKean.

“As many still had family in Norway, it was good to get together and talk and give each other courage and support, and of course, drink some coffee, smoke a pipe or chew some snoose,” McKean wrote. “The $5 per month sick benefit was also very popular.”

Seim and Tice said the national organization still offers insurance and financial investment opportunities to members. In the Flathead Valley, membership is $37 a year with a $5 discount for a second family membership since they receive just one copy of the Sons of Norway magazine called “Viking.”

For more information about the lodge and other celebrations like the Norwegian Independence Day dinner, call Seim at 387-5721. Both he and Tice say it’s the perfect time to join as they plan the celebration of their century mark.

Seim said being with the other people and meeting members of other lodges around the country sold him on Sons of Norway. Tice said she and her husband Pack joined for the fellowship as well as to learn Norwegian cooking and dancing.

The club hopes to attract young people for dancing groups such as those in Poulsbo. Tice would love to see Sons of Norway once again hosting folk dances such as the schottische, the polka and Rhinelander.

She takes dance lessons when offered by the club and recalls many evenings kicking up her heals to a Hardanger fiddle, zither or other instrument of traditional Norwegian folk dancing music.

“It’s just a blast,” she said. “We just had more fun.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.