Come hear the music of an award-winning musician and educator, Elizabeth “Lyz” Jaakola. The morning will also feature a few local Native musicians.
Elizabeth “Lyz” Jaakola is a musician and educator, and an enrolled member of the Fond du Lac band of Lake Superior Ojibwe in Cloquet, MN. She teaches Music, American Indian studies & Media Production at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. She performs and composes in many styles and genres including traditional Anishinaabe music, jazz, blues and opera, her Native-based compositions have also been heard on radio and television. Lyz is always striving to promote Anishinaabe music and education through her collaborations, performances, and composition. Her career spans numerous programs with Arrowhead Chorale, Echoes of Peace Choir, KBEM jazz radio, and many districts in Minnesota while a musical relationship with Finland includes performances with YLE, WSOY and a FIN tango residency.
Awards are not the reason Lyz works, but she has received 2009 Native American Music Award, 2012 First Peoples’ Fund Community Spirit Award, 2013 Sally Ordway Irvine Award, Arrowhead Regional Arts 2014 George Morrison Artist Award, Classical MPR’s Class Notes Artist, 2018 AICF Educator of the Year and AARP’s 50 over 50 in 2022. As well as being a mother, wife and daughter, and in 2020, Lyz ran and was elected to the Cloquet City Council representing Ward 5.
We will be announcing the winners for:
* Sauna + Finnair Raffle (see more info below)
* Early Bird Special for Finnair flights: Everyone who buys their FinnFest Passes (1-Day or 5-Day) before July 17 will be automatically entered into this drawing. PRICE: Round-trip Finnair flight to Finland – value up to $1,500
FinnFest 2024 Sauna + Finnair Raffle tickets will be available at FinnFest USA booth at the Tori Nordic Fair. There will be only 500 tickets available giving you an incredible chance to win.
The Sauna + Finnair Raffle prizes are:
FIRST PRIZE: Wood heated Sauna – donated by Minnesota Timber and Millwork (John Rajala), designed by Ahti Westphal (DJR) – value $10,000+
SECOND PRICE: Round-trip Finnair flight to Finland – value up to $1,500.
WIN A BEAUTIFUL SAUNA!
Sauna design and rendering courtesy of DJR Architecture.
The sauna will be displayed at Finn Fest at the Tori Nordic Fair, next to the FinnFest USA table.
Tickets are ONLY AVAILABLE in person at the FinnFest booth.
The raffle sauna for FinnnFest 2024 has been sustainably sourced, beautifully built, and graciously donated by Minnesota Timber & Millwork and was designed by DJR Architecture. The Sauna highlights an exceptional array of wooden building materials from ecologically managed and enduring forests of Northern Minnesota.
What is the origin of Sauna? Where does it come from? With the sauna design for FinnFest 2024 we wanted to reconnect the building and ritual of sauna with its primeval beginnings in the ancient forests of the past. For some the ritual of Sauna begins with chopping wood and from this idea we begin. Built entirely of wood, all the elements within the sauna are made from northern Minnesota. Remarkably the variety of woods have been specifically selected from Rajala Forestry’s Forever Ecological timberlands. This means you can stand in the forest precisely where the sauna grew! The design principles fit the true Finnish way of living by doing more with less while elevating our timeless connection with nature, forests, and the vital and natural products they provide.
A climate smart design the sauna reconnects the various wood components used in its construction with woods from specific forests that are perpetually climate positive. These forests prioritize biodiversity, sustainability, regeneration, and natural forest cycles. In this way we find balance between human needs and nature’s extraordinary and complex systems.
Utilizing the natural characteristics of wood from natural forests allows for high utility value where nearly the entire tree is used. This is a key distinction as it does not just use the best trees but rather celebrates the reality of a rich and broad variety of natural trees whose harvest does not perpetually degrade the forest, forest soils, and forest functions.
The sauna says that sustainability does not have to be a compromise. We have the approach. It is Local, Natural, Ecologically Sustainable, and Climate Smart. It is an every day celebration of life.
TECHNICAL DETAILS:
Sauna Dimensions: 17’-0” Long x 12’-0” Wide x 11’-4″ Tall
Disclaimer: Exact final dimensions are subject to change within a margin of 15%
The Theme is sustainably doing more with less. Sustainability does not have to be compromise. Local, Natural, Ecologically Sustainable, Climate Smart. Every Day Celebration of Living.
Stove Details
Stove: Wood heated Kuuma Stove:
Stove weight with fire-brick is 375 pounds (fire-brick 48 pounds)
Stove Dimensions 14″W x 18″D x 32″H
The sauna was designed climate smart and for a happy life, fitting perfectly the true Finn way of living. That is done by designing according to the wood component specifications that connect human needs to perpetually climate and biodiversity sustainable natural forests. Natural Characteristics from Natural Forests allows for high utility value of nearly the entire tree, and not just the best trees, but rather the natural trees whose harvest does not perpetually degrade the forest and forest soils and all of their functions.
Base/Frame: Kiln Dried White Pine timbers, posts, and rafters for a strong base/frame.
Exterior: Premium/Rustic White Pine Cove exterior siding and trim that can be left to naturally grey over time or can be finished with an environmentally friendly product of the winner’s choice.
Wall Framing: Strong and durable Red Pine wall framing.
Interior Wall Panerling: Natural Premium Rustic Aspen End-Matched interior sauna wall paneling highlights the sauna. The harvest and utilization of this item enables an ecological restoration of a present Aspen monoculture to a natural long-lived forest dominated by Pines, Oaks, and Maples.
Benches and Floors: Made from Select Aspen they are a more refined element that are warm but not hot to the touch, obtained through proper grade selection and smart use of the full run of wood sustainably harvested.
Roof: Constructed to a centuries old practice of White Pine Shiplap roof deck with native White Cedar Sawn Shingles. Left to grey naturally they will be the perfect complement to the natural White Pine siding and exterior elements.
Exterior Accent Wall: The final high end precious element we’ll afford ourselves is a bit of Select (knot free) Black Ash for the covered exterior accent wall. This precious small area of highly refined difficult to obtain wood is an appropriate and sustainable celebration of the best the forest can sustainably provide when tended for centuries for quality.
IMPORTANT: Winning Terms
The sauna will be displayed for the duration of FinnFest after which it will be returned to Rajala / Minnesota Timber & Millwork in Deer River (zip code 56636) where it will be prepared for final shipping. Final shipping will be the responsibility of the raffle winner. Rajala / Minnesota Timber & Millwork will only be responsible for loading the sauna onto a delivery trailer arranged by the winning customer.
John and Briand Lindula play folk/bluegrass music. Hailing from Taconite Country and raised in Cherry, MN both are graduates of the University of Minnesota Duluth.
In this documentary film, the directors record the return of Sámi artifacts held by mainstream museums, first as they leave the museums and then as they arrive. The emotionally broken Sámi people finally get back their stolen ancestral heritage. The film director Suvi West, herself a Sámi woman, faces the collective pains and starts to break the outside image of them, not only for herself but for the wellbeing of the whole nation. Personal identity, cultural value, and restorative justice are all considered in this eloquently photographed film.
All the hymns we will sing at the 10 AM service are hymns familiar in Finland. Unfortunately, as beautiful and meaningful as each hymn may be, few Americans know them. Come an hour early to the service to learn about the hymns. We’ll practice singing them too. All hymns can be found in the new FinnFest publication, Finnish Heritage Hymnbook.
Margaret Vainio, an American who moved to Finland as an adult, served, for over 30 years as a cantor in the Seinäjoki parish. She has contributed to FinnFest worship experiences for many years. She brought a gospel choir to FinnFest in 1996, a Finnish chamber choir in 2007, an American trio, Northern Echo to FF2008. She has led FinnFest singalongs in 2016, 2017 and 2019. She served as chief translator for the “Finnish Heritage Hymnbook” and the extensive finding aids and biograpnies.
Edmund Fitzerland Hall Stage features performances of Kisarit dancers and interviews with traditional craft artists, each of whom has a booth in the Tori Nordic Fair where they display their work and talk with tori visitors.
The artists’ participation at the 2024 festival is partially funded by either the American Scandinavian Foundation or sponsored and organized by the Nordic Folklife Project/Center for the Study of Upper Midwest Cultures, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
9 am – Kisarit Dancers
10 am – Lori and Kara Oikarainen with Yvonne Lockwood, interviewer
11 pm – Carole Stelic with Yvonne Lockwood, interviewer
1 pm – Taylor Johnson with interview by Marcus Cederstrom
2 pm – Kisarit Dancers
3 pm – Derek Brabender with interview by Jason Schroeder