Annual Danish Dinner held at City Cafe

Teresa Mueller

The 11th Annual Danish Dinner was held Thursday, June 18th, 2009. After serving a traditional Danish meal, two letters written by Danish royalty were read.

Becky and Jeff Gerhart present the cake, decorated as a Danish flag.

One letter stated that an Open House attended by Jeff Gerhart was also attended by close to 4,000 other visitors at the Danish Embassy in Washington.

It went on to say that Denmark is assuming global leadership on the challenge of addressing climate change by hosting the COP15 2009 UN Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen, where their task is to encourage the United States to transition to a more green economy and support a global agreement to cut emissions.

The Danish companies are doing well on the American market, especially in renewable energy, which is highly visible in our state.

While the Crown Prince visited Nebraska, he attended the 125th Anniversary of Dana College in Blair and used his trip to promote Denmark’s contribution to sustainable energy in the United States; he opened a brand new facility in Nebraska of a large Danish company, Novozymes, which represents a major investment in the local economy and will generate considerable employment.

In closing, the Danish Ambassador expressed confidence in the strong bonds between United States and Denmark and the close collaboration on everything from foreign policy and national security to education, trade and business continuing to expand and deepen.

The second letter was written by the Honorary Danish Consul for the State of Nebraska. He states his primary goal as consul is to assist Danish citizens within the U.S., ensuring they have someone that can be called on to answer questions related to culture, business, and law or to assist in the issuance to travel documentation such as visas or passports and also works with the Ambassador to promote economic development between the two countries.

Both Danes seem confident in being able to work with the United States to rehabilitate the economy to what it once was and build on the goodwill of the two countries.

There also was a map secured to corkboard for those attending to place pins into, representing where their family members live.

And last, but not least, Jeff and Becky Gerhart, served a cake made from a Danish recipe and decorated as the Danish flag to those attending.

After the meal was cleared, Phyllis and her staff emerged from the kitchen and introduced themselves to the group, and received their well deserved praises for all their hard work to make the night a success.