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THE NEW VINLAND FOUNDATION
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The New Vinland Foundation is a non-profit corporation created to educate the public about voyages that Norse sailors made to North America beginning approximately in the year 1000. Though these sailors, and in fact all inhabitants of the area from that period are typically referred to as Vikings (the warrior Scandinavians), they also included the Norse farmers who settled Greenland. The Vikings were the first Europeans to reach the North American continent, nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus.
However, their considerable achievements have been eclipsed by Columbus's enduring legacy. The New Vinland Foundation is dedicated to raising public awareness and increasing public appreciation of the Vikings' incredible feats in North America as well as Greenland and Iceland. (Vinland is the name Leif Eriksson gave to the New World, conjuring images of the wild grapes that reportedly grew there, to attract fellow settlers.
The Foundation's project building a replica of a Viking cargo ship (knarr) and sailing it along Leif Eriksson's original route from southern Greenland to northern Newfoundland will not only commemorate the millennial anniversary of the first Viking voyage but will illustrate it in an accessible and exciting way. The web site, www.beyond.landsend.com), contains details of preparations for the expedition as well as crew biographies a route map and detailed information on building and sailing the ship. During the voyage, the crew will keep an online journal of their experiences and send back digital photos, to provide site visitors with a real-time experience as it unfolds.
Following completion of the voyage, the New Vinland Foundation will organize a lecture series and other educational vehicles to disseminate its message. In addition, the knarr will be donated to the national park in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, to become part of the exhibit housing the original Viking settlement there.
For more information contact: Gary Collins, Fleishman-Hillard, Inc.,
212-453-2127,
collinsg@fleishman.com, or Lisa Mullen, Lands' End, Inc., 608-935-4
274, llmulle@landsend.com.