Join us as we celebrate our 5th Anniversary this month! We can’t thank you enough for supporting Icelandic Roots and helping it become such a vibrant community and treasure trove.
In 2012, Icelandic Roots had a blog, Facebook page, and a small group of volunteers interested in genealogy. November 12, 2013 we achieved nonprofit status. Now, five years later, a thriving community of people who love Iceland and value their Icelandic heritage exists. We are flying strong with thousands of people who follow our blog posts, engage with us on social media, and contribute and use the wonderful IR Database. Over 525 people now have full access to the database by being financially supporting member-partners and 30 volunteer workers are on the team. Both are an important part of a vision to preserve our shared heritage for generations to come.
Icelandic Roots is a non-profit IRS code 501(c)(3) organization. Our team is comprised of energized and committed volunteers who accomplish remarkable things. Because of their volunteer efforts, we use much of our income to “pay it forward” in Canada, USA, and Iceland. Collectively, our Icelandic Roots community invests in future generations by awarding thousands of dollars of scholarships for people to participate in the Snorri Program, Icelandic Language Scholarships, pursue other educational opportunities aligned with our mission, and to support other heritage preservation initiatives.
One of our most meaningful initiatives is the Cousins Across the Ocean Project. It’s powerful for our volunteers when they ultimately link together long-lost cousins and reconnect people to family lines they didn’t dream they had. And of course, those people’s lives are forever changed when they connect to newly found relatives and perhaps even visit family farms in Iceland which they knew nothing about. The visitors from Iceland meet their long-lost cousins in North America and the family ties are strengthened. The world gets smaller and more loving through this kind of work!
Your enthusiastic support, combined with our vision of what could be, boldly brought us to this celebration point. If we were all together, we’d certainly have many bright balloons, happy-dance music and would share slices of vinarterta and punch. Since we’re not, we want you to know from the depths of our hearts how happy we are that you’re with us!
Please share the good news of Icelandic Roots’ anniversary with others because each person’s contribution makes us a stronger and more vibrant community keeping our story alive for the generations to come.
Thanks to Arden Jackson from Vinarterta.ca for the 5 candles on the Afi Vinarterta!