October 18, 2025, at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco
11/11/2025, Jeanette Flodell, YSC President
Our hearts are full, and we are still buzzing, almost a month after the big 75th Anniversary party!
This was an event we had looked forward to for a long time. In February of 2020, a group of YSC members (at that point not sure whether to greet friends with a hug or an elbow bump…) met up to start the planning for the club’s 70th anniversary party later that year. We had our eyes on a venue, a band, and started designing invites to send out… And about a month later we had to scrap everything.
So when the 75th rolled around, we knew we wanted to give the members something extraordinary, to make up for the missed party in 2020. 75 years young means Diamond Anniversary, and it sure did sparkle!
The core planning team started meeting semi-regularly early in the year, and more often as we drew closer to the big date. As we got even closer to Oct 18, we called on the help of a wider team of volunteers, and they delivered the most epic party this club has seen in a long time!
We booked the Swedish American Hall, a venue that has been there for the club, and intertwined into our DNA, since our very beginning. The Swedish Society who owns the building celebrated their 150th anniversary earlier this year!
We were allowed 140 seated dinner guests, and we sold every single ticket! We set up tables in the big Freya hall, and on the mezzanine level overlooking the hall.
We called on Roberth Sundell and Stockhome Petaluma to cook a wonderful dinner, and they exceeded all our expectations. Delicious canapés with the welcome champagne, and a three-course meal during the seated dinner. Our friend Debbie Zachareas at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant got a copy of the menu and chose wonderful wines to accompany the meal!
As guests started trickling in, we served champagne and canapés in the Balder room, decked out in silver and sparkle. A slideshow with hundreds of photos of club history over eight decades played in one corner, and we had a beautiful balloon arch framing our 75th logo as our “photo booth”.
During my three years as club president, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of our members at various events, and here I got to meet even more! I tried to go around and greet every person, but 140 people is a lot, and it just became impossible to keep up. We are so grateful for the turnout, though, and I believe we did catch most of our guests on photo!
Being the person currently holding the presidency torch at such a significant milestone celebration was truly a most humbling and precious experience, one I will forever cherish. Standing on that stage, welcoming so many to our celebration, was a huge honor. And to get to award a couple of amazing people with the ultimate token of appreciation, lifetime YSC membership, was incredibly moving. George & Nete Hsieh, and Rick & Judy McCann: on behalf of the entire YSC, thank you for ALL that you have done for us over the decades!
Once dinner was over, just past 9pm, we were in for a treat! Jane Blonde and the Goldfingers ran up on stage and kicked off their fantastic set list for the evening. The dance floor filled immediately! We had a hard stop at 11pm (building/neighborhood regulations), but if we could have continued, people would still have been on that dance floor into the wee morning hours!
To all that came to celebrate the YSC’s diamond anniversary, thank you for bringing such wonderful energy and joy! Our guests definitely sparkled more than the decor!
And to all of those who volunteered their time, thank you, thank you, thank you! This could not have been done without you. I’m aware this comes with the risk of accidentally forgetting someone (I’m not exactly a young Scandinavian anymore!), but you deserve to be officially recognized! So here we go, starting with a couple of special shoutouts to people who put in a lot of hours that created the diamond-hard foundation we built our diamond anniversary upon.
Lotti Hermansson & Nola Anderson – With you two in charge of decor, this was bound to be a success. I intentionally took my hands off this part of the project completely, so you could run with your vision, and I just KNEW I could trust you to deliver something spectacular!
Wenche Lier – You aced the MC job, and I could not be more grateful for you volunteering to do this! Your input as a long-time member was invaluable for this party planning newbie!
Per Caroe – For providing great insights during the party planning process, being a voice of reason, and making the keynote speech a winner!
Jesper Lundbaek – thanks for kicking all of this off, pushing us to start planning early, and for being 101% committed to it from Day 1!
Much gratitude also to: Andrew Vik, Natalia Nordström, Peter Nordström, Jo Schull, Dave Conroy, Carsten Hughes, Lala Flink, Andrew Todt, Solveig Barnes Peete, Kyle Peete, Allen Hinkelmann, Henrik Flodell, Aaron Zorndorf, Anita Papke, Andreas Holm, Johan Backman, Alex Wong, Seti Shaye, Ian Stinson and everyone who came to us with ideas or helped out in other ways!
Cheers to the 75 years of YSC so far! Can’t wait to chat about party memories from this one when I see you at our 100th! 🙂
Jeanette
Below are some photos from the evening. The rest can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mYexYU96oH57AKJt7
Photographer: Aaron Chao (www.aaronchao.com)
