Local women of Nordic heritage are maintaining cultural links with the present and the past in order to preserve as well as better understand it.

Through this preservation the Daughters of Norway wish to awaken new life.

The nonprofit organization’s grand lodge was founded in 1905 in Washington by 10 women intended on promoting Norwegian culture, language, education, history, science and arts.

Initially, there were three independent lodges in the pacific western state that merged to form the grand lodge.

Since then several subordinate lodges have been formed, but some of those around since the beginning have disbanded.

"People were getting too old to meet," said Berit Austin Funnemark, Lake Elsinore resident and founder of the Turid Jespersen Lodge #44 in Mission Viejo.

"Now there are more shooting up with the younger generation," Funnemark added. "They have grown up knowing part of their Norwegian heritage, but that was all they knew. There are lodges all over the country."

Today there are 23 lodges on the west coast and in Midwestern states including Idaho, Iowa, Montana and Wisconsin.

Funnemark is now leading the Daughters of Norway in opening a new lodge at the Rainbow Valley Grange hall at 2160 Rainbow Valley Blvd. in Rainbow.

They will hold an informational meeting on Jan. 17 at 11 a.m. at the hall.

The purpose of the meeting is to welcome prospective members and to determine the amount of interest in starting a new lodge.

If enough interest is shown, further meetings will be scheduled and plans made for the institution of a new lodge.

Those attending the meeting will have the opportunity to become Charter Members when the lodge is instituted.

Grand Lodge member Jill Beatty will be traveling from San Francisco to speak. In addition, Funnemark will give a presentation on the organization and on her recent trip Advertisement

North County Cosmetic to Norway.

In 1957, at the age of 18, Funnemark moved with her family to Torrance from Oslo, the capital of Norway.

Her aunt and uncle were well-situated in America and sponsored them with promises of initial support and connecting them into the workforce.

"I was fortunate to get a job at Richfield Oil Corporation in Los Angeles," Funnemark said. "It was a really good job. My father was a furrier on Hill Street downtown. My mother worked at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, where we later moved."

Funnemark said there are lots of Scandinavian people in the Temecula Valley area.

"It’s too far for them to go to Mission Viejo," she said. "There is a Sons of Norway in Temecula, but some people want to get involved in the Daughters of Norway."

The women share old baking recipes, watch movies, make folk art such as Rosemaling, learn the language and history, listen to music, perform dances, trace genealogy, knit, craft Hardanger embroidery and carry out many other Norwegian traditions.

"It’s a sisterhood," Funnemark said. "We get together and have tea. We raise money for charities like the troops, Ronald McDonald Foundation and cancer research."

Those born in, descended from or married to someone from Norway, someone born in Denmark, Sweden, Finland or Iceland, or any woman with a slektning (relative) who was born in Norway or who was descended from someone who was born in Norway can become a member.

"Anyone who has even a drop of Scandinavian blood is eligible," Funnemark laughed.

Funnemark treasures all the good friends she has made linking each other to Norway. "I know so many people all the way from Vancouver to San Diego," she said.

For additional information on the Daughters or Norway, visit www.daughtersofnorway.com or call Funnemark at (951) 678-2462.