Finland, September 2017
The Finnish Ambassador to the United States, Kristi Kauppi pictured on the right, was guest of honor at the Hanka Homestead Finnish Museum’s Heritage Day 2017 and the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence. She invited us to visit Finland while we were officiating/volunteering at the ceremony. I am a second generation Finnish immigrant with family roots in Taivalkoski, Finland and so we decided to take a trip to Finland and visit ancestry. These are some of the pictures taken on this unforgettable trip.
Helsinki and the country North up to the Artic Circle and Santa's Village in the city of Rovaniemi.
The Räisänen farm in Taivalkoski, Finland dating back to 1679. Birthplace of John Henrik Räisänen who immagrating to America with his father Pavvo circa 1885. The farm is still in the Räisänen family as indicated in the title's certificate of authenticity.
Tapio Räisänen
Gold medalist individual large hill competition at the 1978 Nordic World Ski jumping Championships.
The story on how I met Tapio Räisänen
After listening to relatives and friends returning from visits to Finland explain how we looked alike in our younger years (I guess it was the red beards) I was hoping to meet him in person. We had stopped at the ski hill when we were visiting the library where the Räisänen family tree is located, but no one was around being the off season. The following weekend we had scheduled to meet up with cousin Lea and Jukka Mikkonen to show us the where my grandfather was born. During a lunch break as we were discussing in our broken Finnish where we might like to go my wife Colette casually mentioned the possibility of meeting Tapio as she knew it was on my Finland trip to do list. Jukka quickly made a phone call, left a message, and said Tapio will call right back. No sooner said the phone rang, a discussion was held, and we were headed to a meet with Tapio at the Tapio Räisänen ski jumping hill. All this correspondence was in Finnish and we didn’t really know what was transpiring. We met with Tapio, he gave us the grand tour of facilities, and it ended up being another highlight of our trip. It was obvious that the Mikkonens and Tapio had a fairly close personal or business relationship that was unknown to us. Tapio is still active and well known in the ski jumping world.
Print 