History of the Sons of Norway and Vennekretsen Lodge 3-678
Vennekretsen Lodge 3-678 is a vibrant part of the Sons of Norway, located in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia. We invite you to learn more about our organization and join us in our many varied activities to increase the bond and preserve our Norwegian heritage and way of life for this and future generations.
Membership numbers for Vennekretsen lodge (Atlanta, GA 3-678) on the first of March 2008 were 70 adults and 22 Heritage members. Nothing too out of the ordinary for a lodge until you consider that March 1st was also their institution date. With such a strong start, and more members joining all the time, we turned to lodge president, Erik Kind, to share Atlanta’s strategies for recruitment success.
Brief History of the Sons of Norway
About our Organization (A to Z)
- About The Vennekretsen Lodge - General Information
- Accessibility Statement
- Constitution
- Contact Information
- Feedback Form
- History of our Lodge
- In The News - Vennekretsen-Atlanta
- Link to the Vennekretsen Lodge Website
- Membership Information
- Officers of the Vennekretsen Lodge
- Organizational Information
- Privacy Policy
- Press Releases
- Terms of Use
- The Vennekretsen Lodge on Social Media Sites
- Vennekretsen Lodge on the Web
- Website Traffic Analytics
- Meet the Webmaster of Vennekretsen Lodge
Sons of Norway was founded in 16 January 1895 as "Sknner av Norge", in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by 18 young men of Norwegian background. These young men joined together to provide fellowship and security for themselves in their adopted new country that had many different customs and languages, in order to offer mutual help to one another in case of hardship or sickness and to preserve a very proud heritage.
Article three of the incorporation document provided a solid foundation on which the society was built: "This corporation is organized upon fraternal principles, for the purpose of creating and preserving interest in the Norwegian language by its members, insofar as compatible with the loyalty they owe the United States of America; to labor for the development, enlightenment and progress that conduce to honest citizenship, in order that the Norwegian people in this country may be properly recognized and respected; to aid its members and their families in case of sickness and death, by according them financial assistance of such magnitude, and upon such conditions, as may be determined by its by-laws."
From its humble beginning to the turn of the twentieth century, the Sons of Norway lodges dotted the Midwest and continued to expand outwards. In 1909, The Sons of Norway merged with a similar organization called the Sons of Norway Grand Lodge on the west coast and by the start of Word War One, fraternal organizations with lodges were located all across the North American continent.
Today Sons of Norway has close to 65,000 members who belong to nearly 400 locally governed lodges across Canada, the United States and Norway. We continue to make a conscious effort to build on the traditions of the past while at the same time focusing on the contemporary Norwegian-American lifestyles, thereby taking on a more modern look. We believe that the Sons of Norway continues to appeal to the 4th and 5th generation descendants who show interest in their roots.
