NEWSLETTER OF THE FINNISH HERITAGE HOUSE NO. 44

NEWSLETTER OF THE FINNISH HERITAGE HOUSE NO. 44 ~ Winter 2105
Melodic and harmonic kantele tunes warm
up this holiday season!
The members of Suomalaiset Jouset – Finnish
Strings Ensemble have continued to teach and perform on
their 11-string lap harps throughout the mid coast region
of Maine. As musical ambassadors of The Finnish
Heritage House of So. Thomaston, their melodic and
harmonic workouts have brought “lots of smiles” to so
many people! Even Camden Hills Regional High School
hosted the introduction of six new “kantele 101 graduates”
to Finland's national folk instrument.
Suomalaiset Jouset have planned to “hibernate” during
the months of January and February, resuming their
Saturday morning practices in March. Anyone
interested in learning to play the 11-string kantele
should feel free to contact us. Remember our
prerequisites: #1. You're never too old to learn an
instrument! #2. You love to laugh, sing and eat
Finnish pulla! #3. You do not need to read music; just
be able to count to five using both hands!
Happy holidays and a healthy, prosperous 2015
New Year to one and all!
Celia Jones,
Artistic and Educational Director
Once we completed our “fall concert requests”,
Suomalaiset Jouset members voted on their favorite
holiday tunes that have been part of past concerts. Using
these tunes as part of our bi-monthly warmups, new
selections from Lapland, Finland, England, Germany and
the Appalachian Mountains were introduced. Sixteen
dedicated, amateur musicians cleverly assembled over
thirty holiday tunes to the delight of “tonttus” and
Finnish Heritage House
“joulupukki”. Distinguished melodies of Sibelius, Handel
and Bach were masterfully conquered by one and all!
Holiday requests came from The Woodlands of
Rockland, Montpelier Historic Museum of Thomaston,
The Farnsworth Art Museum of Rockland, and Quarry
Hill of Camden. Future concert performances will include
Bartlett Woods of Rockland; The Lincoln House of
Damariscotta, Camden Villa Retirement Center, Freeport
Public Library, and Rutland, Massachusetts.
Suomalaiset Jouset
Officers
President: Jacqueline Harjula
Vice – President: Gary Aho
Clerk/Secretary: Jacqueline Laffely
Treasurer: Edna Montgomery
Newsletter Editor: Reggie Montgomery
Trustees
Fred Webel (January 2015)
Elsie Brown (January 2015)
Steve Gifford (January 2016)
Anne Little (January 2016)
Kirsti Fish (January 2016)
Building Committee
Chairman: Neil Harjula
Finnish Heritage House
P.O. Box 293
South Thomaston, ME 04858
Send articles to [email protected]
Artistic and Educational Director
Suomalaiset Jouset
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NEWSLETTER OF THE FINNISH HERITAGE HOUSE NO. 44 ~ Winter 2105
“Kosti Ruohomaa and Maine: A Special Relationship” Wraps Up
The tenth annual exhibit at Finnish Heritage House
completed its run on Saturday, December 20th. Kosti
Ruohomaa, as with many creative people who die at a
young age, continues to generate a lot of interest in his
life and his work more than fifty years after his death.
One of the nice benefits of hosting an annual exhibit are
the many visitors who return on an annual basis and that
was certainly the case this summer. However, many
visitors new to FHH came to see the Kosti exhibit
including several new Finnish-Americans from the
immediate area. The exhibit will be taken down in the
next couple of weeks and the display panels will be
taken to a local frame shop to be print guarded to
prevent fading. The interior of FHH will be painted and
the floors refinished this winter so that visitors next
summer will be greeted to a fresh new look. The
Ruohomaa exhibit will then be stored in the 2nd floor
archive at FHH joining the previous exhibits which
include: “Pillars of the Earth:Finns and Granite”,
“Finnish American Music”, “Finns and Feathers: The
Poultry Industry In the Midcoast”, “Remembering
Grandmother and Grandfather”, “Maine Finns and
Blueberries In the Midcoast”, “Finnish-American
Handicrafts” and “Finnish-American Veterans of World
War Two”. The officers and directors of FHH would
like to thank our members, the local community and
visitors for the support of our organization....Kiitos
Paljon.
Next summer Deanna Bonner-Ganter, photo archivist at
the Maine State Museum, will be mounting an exhibit
of Kosti Ruohomaa’s work in a gallery at the State
Museum in Augusta. Also, the long awaited publication
of Bonner-Ganter’s biography of Kosti will be
published in the Spring/Summer of 2015 and FHH
hopes to have copies for sale in our Tori (gift shop).
By: Steve Gifford
These are some photos of the display that has been on
display at FHH during the 2014 season.
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NEWSLETTER OF THE FINNISH HERITAGE HOUSE NO. 44 ~ Winter 2105
Finn Fling
Recipe Box
On Sept. 20th, the members of FHH and Finn
Am joined together to celebrate Finn Fling,
which originated based on the thoughts and
ideas of Steve Gifford and the late June Ranta
Wilcox . It has been very successful, so we
continue every year. This year, fifty-five people
were in attendance. Several of the attendees
were from MA and New York. From 9:00 a.m.
to 10:00 a.m. the film "People of Sointula" was
shown and from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon the
film “1913 Massacre" played. At this time
coffee and pulla were served and people could
visit the Tori, sign up for prizes, purchase rag
rug raffle tickets, complete the trivia quiz, and
also view Steve Gifford's summer exhibit on the
life of Kosti Ruohoma, a famous local
photographer.
At noon our fantastic buffet was served. Many
generous servings of food on the table included
casseroles, meats, salads, and side dishes.
Many thanks to Arthur Fish, Steve and Mary
Gifford, and all others who helped with the
cooking, grilling, baking, setting up and also
cleaning after the meal. On to the door prizes:
The winners were Percy Robinson, Marge
Tibbot, Ginny McMullin, Elsie Brown, Kauko
Wilson, Marie Campbell, Judith Allen, and JoAnne Quinn. The 50/50 was won by Roy
Tappio. Anne Little won the beautiful rag rug
donated by Tooty Wilson. ( see page 7)The
finale of the day was a concert by our kantele
ensemble (Suomalaiset Jouset). The group
was very well received and now we look
forward to Finn Fling 2015. Hope to see you
there.
Jacqueline Laffely
Filling:
1- 24 oz. can Cherry Pie Filling
1- 16 oz. can Whole Cranberry Sauce
3 Tbsp. Corn Starch
½ Tsp. Cinnamon
Glaze Topping:
½ Cup Powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. Light Corn Syrup
3 - 4 Tsp. Water
Preheat oven to 400°. Make crust for a 9” pie.
Use a glass pie plate. In a large bowl, combine
filling ingredients. Spoon filling into crust, place
top crust on, seal edge and flute. Cut vent slits
in top crust. Bake 40 – 50 minutes until golden
brown. Cover crust edges after 20 mins. to
prevent burning. Remove pie from oven.
Immediately in a small bowl, mix powdered
sugar, corn syrup and enough water to make
smooth and get to a drizzling consistency.
Drizzle over hot pie and decorate with sliced
almonds.
Cool for 1 hour before serving.
Enjoy!
CHECK YOUR MAILING
LABEL!
HAS YOUR MEMBERSHIP
EXPIRED?
When you see Dot
Jackson, Congratulate
her on her 90th Birthday.
Her special day was
Nov. 9.
Happy Birthday Dot !
Your name will be removed if you are
more than two years overdue.
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NEWSLETTER OF THE FINNISH HERITAGE HOUSE NO. 44 ~ Winter 2105
NOTICE!
The tori at FHH has closed for the
winter. We are planning on having
the interior trim and floors at FHH
refinished. We need to clear all the
tori items and display items from the
first floor. Volunteers to help get it
ready would be appreciated. We will
have a clearing party in Jan. If you
want to help get in touch with an
officer so we can plan this.
Kiitos!
FHH ANNUAL MEETING
The annual meeting of the Finnish Heritage
House will be held on Saturday, January 17th
at 12 noon, starting with a pot luck meal.
Following the meal, there will be a short
business meeting to include the election of
officers, the Secretary’s and Treasurer’s
report, and any old or new business that
needs to be brought up briefly. Charlie
Heino, one of our favorite speakers, will be
presenting a program about Finnish
immigration. We always look forward to
hearing his words of wisdom, mixed in with
some humor. We look forward to seeing all
our members and guests.
In the event of bad weather, the meeting will
be held on the following Saturday, January
24th.
Of Special Interest; Casting Call
My name is Sofia Eng and I am a casting director in Los Angeles.
I am emailing you in regards to our successful nominated TV
show “ALLT FÖR SVERIGE” (The previous working title of the
show was Great Swedish adventure)
We are very happy to announce that we are now conduction
a nationwide casting for season 5. Season 4 was beyond
successful with the highest ratings ever of 46% in shares (2
million out of the 9 million population watched it)
We are looking for out-going fun adventurous people and
they have to be Americans of Finland Swede descent. We know
that lots of the Finland Swedes back in the day when they
immigrated had to choose whether they were from Sweden or
Finland. Since they lived in Finland on Swedish ground they
automatically became Finnish here in the US. We are looking for
those people that spoke Swedish as their mother tongue but
came from Finland. We are hoping you have people with that
heritage in your organization..
So we thought we would ask if you know of any people with
a little Finland Swede blood. We would be so extremely grateful
if you could either put up our flyer at your facility, forward our
email, print it in a newsletter, post it on your website, or put it
up on FB… with other words please feel free to pass it on!!!!!
Our deadline to apply is Feb 11. The show is shooting in the
summer 2015 in Sweden and hopefully the Swedish part of
Finland.
To apply for our show they have to go on our website
www.greatswedishadventure.com<http://www.greatswedishad
venture.com/><http://www.greatswedishadventure.com/>
I am also attaching an episode from season 4 of our nominated
show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgAdtGmpI6A
I am attaching a flyer but don't be discouraged since it says we
are looking for American with Swedish heritage we are looking
for that too.
I thank you so much for reading this and for your help.
All the best!
M E T E R
Sofia Eng | Casting Director-North America |
M: +13105008350
1422 Hi Point st suite 104, Los Angeles California 90035 USA
Magasin 5 Frihamnen 115 93 Stockholm Sweden.
Inspire.Create.Shine. http://www.meter.tv/en
Meter TV - Part of The Shine Group www.shinegroup.tv
Inspire.Create.Shine.
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NEWSLETTER OF THE FINNISH HERITAGE HOUSE NO. 44 ~ Winter 2105
Our South Thomaston crafters learned that there is no wrong
form of tonttu. Every one is unique. Jackie Harjula made a
lady tonttu, and Jackie Laffely made a lobster angel. In
addition to the traditional tonttu ornaments, the workshop
group also made tree ornaments using seashells that had
been gathered by Irene and her helpers at four different
Maine beaches during the fall. Mussel shells became angel
wings, with a round wooden bead or an achorn for her head.
Thin wire became her halo and also became a hanger. Two
mussel shells also became Santa with thick white paint for
his beard, and red paint with a tiny pom pom for his cap.
Except for the paint and glue, all the materials were natural
materials that can be found at the beaches and forests of
Maine. This was another wonderful opportunity for people
to learn about their Finnish heritage and culture.
HOLIDAY ORNAMENTS WORKSHOP
TONTTUS, SANTAS AND ANGELS
By Irene Rochwarg
On Saturday, October 18, several members of the
South Thomaston area Finnish community and
friends.participated in a workshop to create their own
holiday ornaments. The tables in the Fellowship Hall at the
Finnish Congregational Church were filled with pieces of
wood and trays of seashells. The workshop leader, Irene
Rochwarg, traveled from Yarmouth to bring the additional
craft materials which also included acrylic paint and hot glue
guns. Irene was introduced to “Tonttu Craft” at a FinnFunn
weekend by Jean Bruntner. Since then, the tonttus traveled
to the Camden Rockport Elementary School to be a part of
the month-long series of Finnish cultural activities in January
of 2014. Over 80 children participated in crafting their own
Finnish tonttus.
Irene worked with the art teacher at the school to
provide the tonttu workshops for four groups of 4th graders.
They learned that tonttus are Finnish Elves that bring you
good luck, happiness and protection. The elf-like figures,
made of 4 – 6 inch long wooden pieces, represent the many
spirits of life: the forests, the waters, and the animals. The
also represent the talents and skills of Finnish people. Many
tonttus help Santa Claus (Joulupukki) in Finnish Santa land.
Hardworking elves work all year to make gifts for the good
children all over the world in time for Christmas delivery.
Above: some examples of tonttus.
Above and below: The making of tonttus.
Irene Rochwarg, Mary Gifford, Steve Gifford, Jackie
Harjula, Mari Hanby and Jackie Laffely holding the
tonttus they made at the workshop.
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NEWSLETTER OF THE FINNISH HERITAGE HOUSE NO. 44 ~ Winter 2105
Finn Funn Weekend 2014
By: Judy Crosby and Irene Rochwarg
Irene’s daughter, Sally Soboczinski, an elementary
teacher with 20 years’ experience summed up her
impressions: “There is a huge interest in learning more
about the Finns’ success with education. Pasi Sahlberg
is excellent at communicating the Finnish way of
education in his own entertaining and informative
style. He skillfully describes the important elements of
excellent teacher preparation and the respect they are
given.”
The Tori/Marketplace was open from 9 am to 2:30
pm at the Troy Elementary School where vendors sold
Finnish products and food to eager shoppers.
Entertainment was provided by the Dance Group
Revontulet of Fitchburg and the Musical Group Oivan
Ilo of New Ipswich, NH.
Afternoon sessions offered were: Molkky for all
ages (in rec. room or volleyball court), Finns of New
England 1920’s -1950’s, Moomins (children’s
literature), Find Your Creative Muse, Genealogy in the
21st Century, Birch Basketry, and a Language Class
After another delicious family-style meal, we
listened to humorist Fred Marple, the unofficial
spokesman for the mythical town of Frost Heaves, NH.
He’s on a one-man campaign to put Frost Heaves back
on the map, since – as the town’s motto goes: “you
can’t get there from here”. Dancing followed to the
music of Oivan Ilo playing Finnish folk music. They
especially enjoy playing for people who get up and
dance, “whether the dancer is learned or spontaneous
(e.g. little children).”
Raffle winners were posted Sunday morning, with
many happy attendees picking up their winnings
before heading home. The weekend concluded with
Mummu’s Table, with many cooks sharing their Finnish
recipes with others, followed by cheese making by
Farmer Dave. A wonderful roast turkey luncheon was
the finale of an unforgettable weekend for Finns and
friends from New England and the Northeast region.
We appreciate the hard work done by the committee
made of up of Stan Karro, Mauri Auvinen, and Martha
Silander.
Continued on page 7.
Please note that both of these ladies wrote an article for FHH
about the weekend, so I have taken the liberty of combining
their thoughts and impressions. JLH
The 22nd Finn Funn Weekend was held at the East
Hill Farm in Troy, NH for the third time, from November
14-16, 2014. The weekend was packed with Finnish
Cultural Activities.
Early Friday morning, there was an optional bus tour
to the neighboring MA Finnish communities of
Winchendon and Ashburnham (home of the nation’s
only piano museum) with lunch at Saima Park in
Fitchburg, followed by a wine tasting in Bolton, MA.
Before dinner Friday, Dr. Sean Tate showed a video
“The Finnish Phenomenon” by Robert Compton.
Afterward, he noted key points to be taken away from
the film.
The evening began with hors d’oeuvres enjoyed to
the background music of accordionist Bert Stromholm.
After receiving a warm welcome, a delicious dinner of
baked stuffed chicken and roast beef was served
family-style. Following dinner, dance instructors Bernie
and Nancy Nowak invited people to join them and learn
the steps to a Finnish polka and other dances.
Everyone kicked up their heels to the music of the
Central MA Accordion Players.
After breakfast Saturday, Finnish education expert
Pasi Sahlberg delivered an enlightening and
entertaining keynote address about his country’s highly
renowned education system. He is a well-known
Finnish Professor of Education, author and speaker, and
has spoken on this topic in over 40 countries. Finland is
number one in education as the result of a plan created
universally in Finland starting in 1970. Sahlberg
stated, “They set a goal of excellence and have
achieved it.” He was pleased to be able to speak to a
group of Finns about this successful accomplishment.
A panel discussion then took place made up of Dr.
Sean Tate of CT, teachers Gail Lehtomaki of CT and Julie
Karro Gutierrez of MA, and Finnish exchange student
Veeti Niskanen. They provided more information and
gave the attendees an opportunity for questions.
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NEWSLETTER OF THE FINNISH HERITAGE HOUSE NO. 44 ~ Winter 2105
Finn Funn Weekend 2014
(Continued)
East Hill Farm makes a special effort to create a warm
and friendly atmosphere. The Inn has a Finn in
residence, and guests are fortunate that kahvi ja pulla
is always available in the family style dining room.
FHH would like to thank those members and friends
who donated many of the over 60 raffle prizes!
Above: Door prize gifts.
Anne Little is shown holding the rag rug she won at
the annual Finn Fling. The rug was generously
donated by Tooty Wilson. Tooty donates one of her
beautiful handmade rag rugs every year.
The Nominating Committee which consists of Gail
Robinson and Arthur Fish has presented the following
slate of officers to be voted on during the annual
meeting on Jan. 17, 2015.
Officers
President: Jacqueline Harjula
Vice – President: Gary Aho
Clerk/Secretary: Jacqueline Laffely
Treasurer: Edna Montgomery
Newsletter Editor: Reggie Montgomery
Trustees
Fred Webel (January 2018)
Gail Robinson (January 2018)
Steve Gifford (January 2016)
Anne Little (January 2016)
Kirsti Fish (January 2016)
Building Committee
Chairman: Neil Harjula
Some of the tori tables and Finnish Folk Dancers on
stage.
A closer look at the Revontulet, Finnish Folk Dancers
and musicians on stage.
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