Charlie's dream trip to Norway coming true

Beneath his feet, he'll feel cobblestones. Sea spray will wash over his face. He'll hear the call of sea birds and the lilting music of the language he is learning despite blindness.

Through sound, touch and taste, 72-year-old Charlie Kinder will finally experience Norway, a country he's dreamed about since learning about the Land of the Midnight Sun as a 9-year-old in a geography class.

Blind since he was 20, Kinder has embraced the Scandinavian culture and is learning Norwegian at the Scandinavian Language Institute in Ballard. With Social Security and a modest income as a piano tuner, Kinder never expected to visit Norway.

But so many people have responded to a Seattle Times story last week on efforts by Kinder's language classmates to translate his lessons, that his Norwegian teacher, Ed Egerdahl, decided to take donations to send him to Norway.

Less than 24 hours after the story ran, Egerdahl had collected more than $800. It was enough that Egerdahl, who leads a tour to Norway each June, declared that Kinder was going to Norway with the group. So far, $4,000 of the $10,000 needed for Kinder and a traveling companion — who will serve as a helper — has been donated.

The response to the story took Kinder, Egerdahl and the language-school students by surprise. After all, the efforts made so Kinder could read Norwegian weren't done out of pity, but out of the willingness to help a family member, Egerdahl said.

"It's a love relationship," he said.

When Egerdahl called Kinder and told him he could go to Norway if he wanted to, Kinder burst into tears. So did Egerdahl.

Then a network of Norwegians began e-mailing, sending the story through the international mailing lists of Sons and Daughters of Norway, to various Norwegian clubs, foundations and interest groups, including the Royal Embassy of Norway in Washington, D.C. The embassy's Web site linked to the story. In addition, Oslo's Aftenposten, the leading daily in Norway, ran a translated version on its front page Monday.

Yesterday, Egerdahl found 21 more letters with a total of $1,500 in donations in his mailbox. They came from Michigan and Minnesota and cities in Washington. Pledges also have come from Norway via the Internet.

Egerdahl, who is getting married Saturday to Shoreline teacher Laurie Sampelayo, received a letter from a friend who said they were sending $50 to the "Charlie fund" as a wedding gift.

"That's just what I want," Egerdahl said.

Marianne Forssblad, director of the Nordic Heritage Museum, which houses the language class, understands the response.

"There is so much violence in this world," she said. Stories like Kinder's should be an example "of how we humans should be to each other."

Kinder is to leave on the 17-day trip June 26.

He's counting the days. Kinder hopes to be in contact with several schools of the blind to learn how blind Norwegians are trained, something that Forssblad is setting up.

He wants to take in the smells of the fish market in Bergen, hear the hustle and bustle of Oslo and feel the sea breeze from the boat as it sails from Bodø toward the Lofoten Islands.

And he wants to experience the Scandinavian summer sun hovering near the horizon and then rising again without setting.

While he won't be able to see it, he will be able to feel the warmth on his skin at midnight.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com