Letter from our Board President

2021 has been hard on everyone, and especially organizations that focus on community.  The Society of Free Letts has been a community center for Philly Latvians for over 129 years.  Without income from rentals and events we have seen our general account greatly diminish.  

Luckily, the end seems to be getting closer and we hope that despite the pandemic still looming we can begin to come back together in person and reestablish the energy that has been such a huge part of all our lives.  We have been fortunate to have Gunnar Montana, LLC to continue to use our facilities since Fall 2020 as an art studio, and currently Gunnar is also preparing to host a Fringe show (though slightly modified to hold smaller audiences) this fall.  

We had a talka June 5th to give the building a little sprucing up.  Thank you to those that came out to help- Aida Berzina, Tija and Karlis Budkevics, Ieva and Janis Bundza, Inta Grunde, Andris Mezgailis, Eriks Mezgailis, Sandra and Robert Milevski, Sandra Rasma Taumanis and Mike.  We’d also like to give a shout out to Silvija Mezgailis and Ilze Berzina who spent more than 80 hours reorganizing and cleaning the library this past year- it looks great!

We had our first in person events on June 19th- a place for people to participate in her.e.xhibition.lv via zoom presented by our former board member, Alise Pundure. There was also a happy hour later that evening.  Though our numbers were small for both events that day, those that attended had a good time seeing old friends, and making new ones.  These two small events have breathed some much needed life back into our building and given us hope for more events to come.  

We hope to see you (in person) very soon!

- Laila