Dear Mr President,
Dear guests from
Russia and the Russian Embassy,
Dear members of the Lions Clubs.
First, I like to welcome you all to this
mysterious place in the middle of the forest. However, this place was of great
importance for the beginning of our nation. Lindholmens Castle – it really once
was a castle - was the place where Gustav Vasa was born 1496. One can say a lot
of things about Gustav Vasa, but he became our first real king of Sweden and is
known to be our land father. This is, in other words, a historical place.
Lindholmen is situated in the community
Vallentuna. It belongs to the area Roslagen. Vallentuna is very rich of
memorial monuments like runestones. That means, that the local history is well
known since at least a thousand years, when the Vikings lived here. That is
also why our Lions district is called the Vikings district. In other words, the
members of the Vallentuna Lions Clubs are Vikings.
The greatest Viking - however not from
Vallentuna - is Sten Åkestam. The other day you celebrated your 80th
birthday. We like to congratulate you with a small gift.
The Vikings who lived here a thousand years ago were asked
to come over the Baltic Sea to create law and order in the great country on the
other side. So, they went away in their big boats to what they at least though
was fame and fortune.
Due to the Cronicle of the monk Nestor in Kiev,
Prince Rurik - who in fact came from Vallentuna (at least I think so) – became
the king of Novgorod 862 and the forfather of the dynasty that lasted in Russia
till the 1700-centery, when the Romanov dynasty took over.
And what more is, the men and women who came
from this area Roslagen were called varjager or Ruser – and that is from the
word ruser Russia got it´s name. In Finnish, Swedish is called Ruotsi – that
might also be a reason.
But this was a thousand years ago. Today the
Vikings again are coming to the friendly people of Russia, who have had a hard
time during the Soviet system, to help. But today the Vikings are the members
of the Lions Clubs.
Thanks to 15 000 Swedish members of the Lions
Club, we were able to restore the first of two buildings at dr Lydias Maternity
Hospital in Novozybkov.
Thanks to this fantastic grant from the
Lions Clubs International foundation, we will be able to begin to restore
building number two.
On behalf of the women, their husbands and the
children of Novozybkov - and of all members of the Swedish Lions Club - I can
only say – Thank you!
Mr President - The president of the Vallentuna
Lions Club – Ulf Näsström - like to give you a small gift, just to show, how
honoured we are by your visit.
Once again – Thank you!
