Gratulere med dagen Gerry

The menu at Skogfjorden was:
Salat med spinat og pærer og blå castellodressing
Krydret laks i butterdeig med marinara saus
Poteter med sennep
Rugbrød med dill
Fyrstekake

Before lunch the villagers sang a song for Gerry, "Å så heldig jeg er" or "Oh how lucky I am." Oh how lucky any child able to attend a Concordia Language Village.

Am I in Norway? As close to it as one could be, without being there. Concordia College's thirteen Language Villages recognized their founder Dr. Gerhard K.Haukebo today at a luncheon in Gimle at the Norwegian Language Village Skogfjorden on Turtle River Lake near Bemidji, Minnesota. His daughter Heidi announced the Gerry Haukebo Concordia Language Village Scholarship endowment which will start with a balance of $9,000. She described her father as "the most selfless man I know." I fully agree with her. A granite monument honoring Gerry was unveiled at the entrance to the five Villages on Turtle River Lake. A future Visitor Center will bear his name. Gerry was almost speechless...... I said almost. "Wow!" was his response to the presence of so many friends and all the accolades. The True Teflon Man, Gerry deftly deflected all credit to those around him.

The creation of the Concordia Language Villages in 1961 started with a conversation between one Gerhard and his good friend Erhard in a car on Highway 71 on the way to Lake of the Woods to catch some walleye. While International Day was going full blast this afternoon at Waldsee,



Gerry and his genädige Frau Doris quietly, without notice and very much true to form slipped back into the car and headed north on 71 for their island cabin on the Rainy River. I wonder what inspiraton Highway 71 bought him today?

At the re-dedication of the Peace Site at the entrance to the Villages, Language Village Executive Director Christine Schulze announced that the fourteenth Language Village was in the formative stages. What language you ask? Arabic.

Although the world seems very scary today, it would be even scarier were it not for dreamers and doers like the Haukebos.

They have set the bar far out of my reach.