Unraveling great stories

It always gives me great pleasure to uncover more examples of cooperation between Finnish and Canadian organizations.

Back in February, I visited the Heureka science centre in Vantaa and was pleasantly surprised when I saw the film Bears in the Verne Theatre. Bears was produced by Science North in Sudbury, Ontario. Several e-mails and a few phone calls later, I discovered that Science North and Heureka have quite extensive cooperation.

What is more, the relationship goes back over fifteen years! In fact, Science North Executive Director Jim Marchbank and Heureka Director Per-Edvin Persson are great friends.

Uncovering these great examples of cooperation means that relationships between Finns and Canadians can be found in some of the most wonderful places. We would like you to share some of your stories of great relationships that you have forged with your fellow Finns and Canadians. Contact us! We will feature them in the next issue of our newsletter.

We have seen a slight change in our board for 2004-2005. Our former chairman, Dwayne Weleschuk, propelled the Finnish-Canadian Society into the position that it is in today. Our methods of operating have been set and our public profile has seen a revival, as we have been part of a number of high profile events over the past year.

We gained two new board members, Lauri Montonen and Kirsti Mesiniemi, giving us the Finnish-language contingent that was lacking over the past couple of years. I am honoured to take over as chairman and hope that we can continue to uncover the best of the relationship between Canada and Finland and bring it to you.

I wish you a wonderful summer!

By Carmen Boudreau-Kiviaho