Vikings Are Descending on Tinley Park

The Vikings are coming! The Vikings are coming!

No need to sound the alarm ... This time.

These Vikings and their spouses are flocking to Southland from as far away as Boston and New York this week as part of the 80th National Convention of the Independent Order of Vikings, which is being hosted this year by the , 6730 W. 175th St.

The IOV was formed more than a century ago to provide cultural and fraternal opportunities for those of Scandinavian descent. That provision was dropped some years ago to bring in more members, such as Frank Riggio, who has led the Tinley lodge for the past three years.  

“Members will start showing up Wednesday,” Riggio said. He said about 120 members will be attending the convention, which is held every two years. The Tinley lodge hosted a similar soiree 10 years ago.

The opening meeting will be Thursday at the and activities will then move to the lodge, Riggio said. Out-of-town guests are staying at the adjacent Hilton Hotel.

Besides meetings, the IOV has scheduled a trip to Navy Pier and riverboat casinos for spouses. Other social activities include a Thursday pork chop dinner by Hog Wild followed by music by Bernie Glim, a Friday dinner and videotaped night at the races and a Saturday evening grand banquet.

“We plan to have a lot of fun,” Riggio noted.

But the convention does mean a one-week cancellation of the lodge’s popular Thursday night bingo, which is open to the public.

“People start coming in at 6 p.m. and the first game is called at 7 p.m.,” he said. “Bingo players also can buy food and desserts at reasonable prices, as well as drinks at the bar.”

Money raised at bingo and other events is used for scholarships and donations to the various Midwest camps, Riggio said.

Despite the hoopla this week, the lodge – like many fraternal groups — is facing an uncertain future. Membership has fallen from more than 600 a decade ago to about 206 today.

“And like any club, not all members take an active role," Riggio said.

The lodge building — the former Tinley Park Post Office — was acquired in 1976 when the group relocated from Chicago’s Roseland community. It's now up for sale.

“Property taxes are killing us,” Riggio said.

But the Harald Viking Lodge is not going away, even if it sells its home for the past 30-odd years.

“The lodge will continue,” he said. “Maybe we can find a smaller building. If not, we’ll rent space somewhere like the (Veterans of Foreign Wars) for our meetings.”

Riggio said that many of the IOV’s 21 lodges nationwide, with 7,600 members, don't have a permanent facility.

“As membership ages, it gets harder to maintain a facility. But the lodges continue to exist,” Riggio said.