Sanomat Spring 2023

SALOLAMMEN SANOMAT

News from the Salolampi Foundation

TERVETULOA

by Jennifer "Jenna" Porter, Dean

Dear Friends of Salolampi,

It is with great joy that I have accepted the offer to lead Salolampi. I am looking forward to welcoming new and returning villagers and staff to our beautiful site on Turtle River Lake next summer to continue the long tradition of learning to live our lives in Finnish and making lifelong memories

Like many of you and your villagers, my path to learning Finnish has been long and winding It began as an 11-year-old who came to Salolampi with a sense of pride in my Finnish heritage, but few words of Finnish. Six summers as a villager (three as a credit villager) changed that, as I grew in confidence and my ability to use the partitive case correctly

Since then, I have worked as a counselor, teacher, and assistant dean at Salolampi. I have lived in Finland, and continued a lifelong pursuit of learning Finnish In my professional life outside of Salolampi, I translate Finnish literature into English I currently reside in Colorado with my husband and our three children (story continues on page 2)

KIITOKSET!

The Salolampi Foundation wishes to thank two courageous leaders and ex-officio members of our Board for their invaluable contributions to Salolampi

Amy Iida Tervola Hultberg served as the dean of Salolampi for the past 11 years Prior to this time, she was a long-time staff member and villager

Christine Schulze served for 30+ years as the Executive Director of Concordia Language Villages, and later as the Director of Development

We wish them both the best in their future endeavors!

ALUMNA PROFILE: AMY SISSALA TERVETULOA

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1)

I am grateful for the warm welcome from Concordia Language Villages, the Salolampi Foundation, and others, and I look forward to working with many of you and your villagers in the months to come

In Salolampi news, hiring for Summer 2023 has begun and applications from passionate and enthusiastic people have already started to roll in One of the joys of the off-season is talking with potential staff members and creating a summer team with diverse skills and interests, and then planning how they can use and implement them at Salolampi to create fun activities and share their knowledge with our villagers If you or someone you know would like to work at Salolampi, please email me at jensport@gmail com

For the first time, Salolampi will be offering a spring virtual session for school-aged villagers, called Club Salolampi, that will meet once per week for six weeks in March and April It is the perfect opportunity to get villagers ready to come to Salolampi in person in the summer

Summer programming this year at Salolampi will include a one-week Family Week and two- and four-week (credit and non-credit) residential sessions

For more information about specific sessions and to register, please visit www concordialanguagevillages org For scholarship opportunities, visit www salolampi org, and read the Scholarship Corner in this Sanomat

Save the date!

Summer 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the permanent Salolampi Finnish Language Village site at Turtle River Lake Stay tuned for info on how YOU can take part in the celebration

Interviewed by Katie-Rose Imbriano

Amy Nelli Sissala (pictured at right) was a Salolampi villager for nine (9) summers! I sat down with her to hear her story about how she went from Bemidi, Minnesota to Billund, Denmark

Tell me about why you came to Salolampi the first time, and what made you want to keep coming back. My grandparents were involved with

the Salolampi Foundation so I believe that's where the idea came from Both my mother and father have Finnish ancestry, and though no one spoke the language anymore, it was still important to us I kept returning because of the people, the villagers and counselors There is pride in trying to learn such a hard language What’s your favorite thing about Salolampi? The people were definitely my favorite and as I said why I kept returning I made many friends I stayed in contact with between summers and even beyond. The location was also beautiful Summers on a lake in Minnesota are really special

How did your Salolampi experience change the way you viewed the world? I met people from all over the country and all over the world I got to hear different perspectives and it made me curious about different places and cultures. Everyone can have a different approach to the same problem. A lot of times they're even better than what I was doing

What did you study in college, and how did you decide on a career?

I studied architectural and mechanical engineering in school I mainly chose that because I was good at math and my grandfather was an engineer It still amazes me how lucky I was to end up loving engineering. At the end of 2021, I accepted a job at The LEGO Group (yes, those LEGO bricks!) working on how to 3D print LEGO elements to their high standards I moved to Denmark in September 2022 Did your experience at Salolampi influence your decision to move to Scandinavia? I'm not sure I would've been brave enough to move to a new country without Salolampi! Because of Salolampi I already knew what it was like to get dropped into a place where I don't know the language (though many people speak English here) It also taught me at a young age what it's like to be without your family or anyone you know, even if only for 2-4 weeks at a time Salolampi made me brave I also probably would not have visited so many other Nordic countries (Finland three times, Sweden and Norway) without going to Salolampi and getting interested in suomen kieli With that experience I felt like I knew what to expect (for the most part) without ever having been to Denmark before Plus, learning one language makes it easy to learn another It also helps that lots of languages seem easy after Finnish!

Do you have any advice for young people interested in studying Finnish?

Salolampi is a great place to start! While I'm jealous that kids now have Duolingo and can find Finnish media as easily as on Netflix there is no substitute for interacting in the language 24/7 I never did as well learning languages in a classroom setting as when I was trying to use the words I learned in my everyday life. I'd also say don't be afraid to make mistakes. If you wait to be perfect before you talk, you'll wait forever

Ways to Give to the Salolampi Foundation

Scholarship Fund

Online at www.salolampi.org

Venmo @SalolampiFoundation

Send us a check:

Salolampi Foundation

P.O. Box 14480

Minneapolis, MN 55414-0480

PayPal Giving Fund

Go to paypal com/fundraiser/hub to make Salolampi Foundation your charity

Employer Match

Check with your employer to see if it matches a yearly or monthly charitable donation

Retirement Account

Make a distribution to the Salolampi Foundation from your retirement account

Name the Salolampi Foundation as a beneficiary of a retirement account or estate.

Sampo Endowment

Leave a legacy by donating to the Sampo Endowment Fund

Volunteer

Volunteer at our spring and fall Work Weekends (see article at right about our Fall 2022 work weekend)

Volunteer to serve on a foundation committee

Volunteer to call donors for our annual Phone-AThon

Email info@salolampi.org to learn more about donating, to sign up to volunteer, and to update your contact information with us!

FALL WORK WEEKEND

by Paavo Taipale

During the weekend of September 16-18, 2022, the Salolampi Foundation organized our twice annual Salolampi Work Weekend Sixteen volunteers participated providing almost 200 hours of service. Many tasks were completed throughout the weekend Volunteers included former summer staff, former villagers, parents and family of villagers and friends of Salolampi Special thanks to Milo and John Laitinen who led work weekend, and to our volunteers, including MaryAnn Gomsi, Susan Harstad, Andy Kimball, David Kimball, Marvin Nevala, Jennifer Porter, Sue Romano, Kaisa Syvaoja and family, Eli Lahti-Schlotec, and Paavo Taipale.

Tasks completed during work weekend included:

cut, split, and stacked firewood by sauna cleaned gutters

weeded rock gardens and brick path

cleaned dining hall stairs

removed all shower heads

cleaned in kitchen

pruned gardens including behind yellow building and around main building

cleaned loading dock area

raked/cleaned up around cabins

cleaned up and organized laundry room cleaned up and organized craft room organized storage area above yellow building washed/ironed curtains and sewed ties cleaned up lumber pile behind yellow building

and so much more!

LETTERS FROMCAMP

Your contributions to Salolampi scholarships make it possible for young people to attend our programs. Our Foundation is so grateful for your support, and so are our villagers:

Thank you for offering scholarships to people to come to Salolampi. Here I have learned more Finnish in 2 years than I have in my whole life. It’s an incredible experience and I’m very grateful that you make it so more people can come here. Thank you. Ainikki

Thank you for the opportunity to come here, and for generously offering scholarships for so many campers. I’ve experienced and learned so much since I’ve been here. This place is so interesting. With many thanks, Alli

I had such a good time learning the Finnish language and spending time here at Salolampi. Going into camp, I didn’t know very much about Finland or the Finnish language, and I enjoyed learning more about the beautiful language and culture.

Kiitos! Marjatta

Thank you very much for the generous scholarships given to me and everyone else here at Salolampi. This is my fifth and final year as a camper, and my second year as a teho. None of this could’ve happened without your generosity.

Elias

SCHOLARSHIP CORNER

Scholarship Organization Scholarship Type/Amount Information Salolampi Foundation

Phone-a-Thon Thank You

Thank you to all of you, our generous donors, who gave during the annual phone-a-thon in October A full list of donors will be published in the 2022 annual report A special thanks goes to our Phone-a-Thon co-chairs, Linda Davis and Aino Wheler, and to all of our volunteer callers Kiitos!

Opt-in scholarships for youth villagers, 25% of tuition for all residential programs (up to $50,000 available for all villagers, first come, first serve )

Salolampi Foundation matches scholarships for youth who receive a scholarship from a Finnish Partner Organization in North America up to limit: Family Week -$100

Two-Week - $200

Four-Week - $400

Apply using the "Partner Scholarships" Form at www.salolampi.org/ scholarships/automatic

Apply by filling out the CLV Passport Fund form when you register for a session and OPT-IN More information at www salolampi org/ scholarships/automatic Salolampi Foundation Partner Scholarship Match

Finlandia Foundation National

Finlandia Foundation local chapters

First-come, first-served scholarships for youth villagers, $300 Travel Grants

Apply by filling out the form and returning it to FFN by email finlandiafoundation.org/ programs/salolampifinnish-language-village/

Concordia Language Villages Passport Fund

MN Office of Higher Education Enrichment Stipend

Check with individual chapters

Needs-based scholarships for residential youth villagers

Please contact individual chapters for more information

Apply by filling out the form when you register for a session www concordialanguage villages org/scholarshipsfaq

Opt-in scholarships for youth villagers, 25% of tuition for all residential programs

Ken Daniels Memorial Scholarship Fund Varies

www.concordialanguagev illages.org/youth-datesand-rates/costs-andscholarships/mndepartment-of-highereducation-scholarships

In memory of Board member, Ken Erkki Daniels Please email the Daniels family at danielsperhe@q.com for info on how to apply.

STAFF SNAPSHOT: TIINA WATTS, ADULT PROGRAM LEADER

My name is Tiina-Lisa Watts - Tiina (with 2 "i"s because my mother was Finnish and Lisa (with 1 "i") because my father was American. I did not grow up speaking Finnish, but learned a few words and songs and enjoyed listening to my mom speak Finnish with her sister, who had also moved to America in the 1950s I was able to learn Finnish when our family lived in Finland from 1975-1978 when my dad was the leader of all the Latter-day Saint missionaries in Finland, and then when I was a missionary there myself in the early 80s. Since then, I have been involved in teaching Finnish in a variety of venues, including Salolampi, Suomi-koulu, online Zoom classes, and Brigham Young University I love Finland and the Finnish language!

I first heard about Salolampi when my husband, Ed, and I and our children moved to Minnesota in 1997. It sounded like the kind of place I would love to be a part of so in 2002 I asked former dean Lauri Saukko if I could come teach, and he hired me for the next adult week I left my seven kids in the care of my husband and went off for one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life I have been hooked on Salolampi ever since and have been the director of adult week programs since 2018

Salolampi offers several adult programs per year (shown in the table below) All of the programs offered by Salolampi are great ways to improve in Finnish language proficiency Attending an adult program at the Salolampi is a fun and effective way to improve your communication skills, as well as your cultural understanding of the language and people

Loom Grant

Salolampi was a recipient of the Schacht Spindle Company's 2022 Schacht Tools for Schools Grant.

This grant program helps schools and nonprofits purchase weaving equipment. We received the following equipment to support Salolampi's weaving curriculum:

5 - Cricket looms and shuttles

10 - tablet/card weaving cards

10 - belt shuttles

book Card Weaving by Candace Crockett

book Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom by Syne Mitchell

Thanks you to Susan Susanna Harstad and Kristi Kirsti Loeck for their assistance in preparing these materials for use this summer.

Immerse yourself in the language with skilled language teachers, attend cultural programs, sing Finnish songs, dance, bake, learn Finnish crafts, eat Finnish food, enjoy the indoor and outdoor sauna, walk in the woods, and chat with other like-minded Finn-o-philes In between these adult week in-person programs, keep up on your Finnish in a Zoom language class or a discussion class one evening a week This regular practice and exposure to Finnish will keep your skills growing! Practice makes better! Tervetuloa oppimaan suomea!

Salolampi Foundation

Mark Kellaher, President

Aino Wheler, President-Elect

John Hanson, Past President

Paavo Taipale, Treasurer

Katie-Rose Imbriano, Secretary

Sara Ahlgren Bogie

Richard Castro

Linda Warpula Davis

Ceridwen Koski

Steve Leppälä

Eric Mäki

Heidi Marttila-Losure

Ashley Lund

Kaisa Taipale

Ex-Officio Members

Jennifer Porter, Dean

Mary Maus Kosir, Executive Director, CLV

Marc Johnson, Development Director, CLV

SALOLAMPI FOUNDATION IS A 501(C)(3) NON-PROFIT CORPORATE ENTITY UNDER MINNESOTA STATUTES AND HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED AND OPERATED EXCLUSIVELY FOR CHARITABLE AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

SALOLAMPI FOUNDATION RECOGNIZES ITS GENEROUS DONORS IN ITS ANNUAL REPORT, AVAILABLE AT SALOLAMPI ORG TO REQUEST A PAPER COPY, PLEASE EMAIL INFO@SALOLAMPI ORG