This has been an interesting year for me, to say the least. As substitute President, I have gained a whole new insight about all the varied tasks that must be accomplished that allowSaima to carry out its core mission, and more. It takes a lot of time and effort by a lot of volunteers to do the necessary jobs to make it all work. We volunteer our time because Saima is a very special place. We come here for friendship and community, for Saima’s peaceful and healing natural beauty, for learning and recreation, and so much more.
For many years, besides being president, Linda was the rental agent for the Function Hall and Pavilion, the major source of our income to pay for maintenance, our taxes and insurance. Taking over as rental agent, another insight I gained was about the size and scope of the rental process. Very time consuming. Several times in the past Linda described it as “having many moving parts.” Borrowing from a Bob Dylan song, “It don’t take too long to find out, just what (s)he was talkin’ about.” The fact that Linda, with the help of Joe, of course, did the rentals for so many years is a testament to her love and devotion to Saima. I also love and am devoted to Saima, but to maintain my sanity I needed to make some changes. On our website, we added more photos and more detailed descriptions of the Pavilion and Function Hall, but most importantly, I would like to report that Saima has entered the 21st century. Our rentals are now on-line, which reduces the workload and time to, I’m estimating, 10% of what it was. My daughter, Jill, figured out how to put the rentals on-line. It was a steep learning curve, but she persevered. I was so thankful, I told her that Jane and I would take her and her family out toeat, any place she wanted. I was thinking, maybe the Old Mill. She chose some little corner restaurant in Roveniemi. Just kidding.
Besides the many varied celebrations and events held by our renters and the Sizer School which rents our athletic field, you might be surprised by the list of all that has gone on here atSaima over the past year. We held the traditional Finnish celebrations, Kesajuhla, the Tori, and St. Urho’s well as the Harvest Dinner and the monthly breakfasts, all of which require “all hands on deck.” Saija offered her Finnish cooking classes as well as her multi-level Finnish language classes. Leila directed Revontulet, the Northern Lights, the traditional Finnish folk dancing group which practiced here roughly every other Friday. The Denis Shawn dancers practiced here every Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday evenings during the warm part of the year, Hildy directed the Fitchburg State University Community Orchestra under the Pavilion. On some of those Tuesdays, I conducted interpretive wildflower walks. On Monday evenings in August, yoga was offered free under the Pavilion. This past winter was a good one for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Frank, who grooms the trails, and other volunteers helped members and non-members alike enjoy the magical winter beauty of Saima. On Wednesday mornings the Saima Garden Club met to work on, well, the gardens of course. Once again, Clair and Eino organized the successful scholarship flea market fundraiser and resulting scholarships. There are a number of less noticeable, but important things that have been going on. Bob and Diane are in the process of determining the locations of two Narcan stations, in case, heaven forbid, someone has an overdose here. And Frank is figuring out how and where to install security cameras, because of some unfortunate vandalism. Getting back to the upbeat, June and company continued to work in our already very impressive library/museum to make it even better, somehow. It’s already pretty great. June also has kept the rest of the North American Finnish community up to date with what is happening here at Saima with her columns in the Finnish American Reporter. Julie organized our very enjoyable outing to Tanglewood. Recently added to this list, on Sunday mornings, Marci is here to Nordic Walk with anyone who would like to join her. Rumor has it that Rob, Marci’s husband, might start a running club, which could introduce Saima to people who are not already familiar with this place and us, who just might want to become involved.
Speaking of involvement. All members who have and use email received The Survey that were created from the brainstorming notes from several meetings of the Future Committee. Saima is slowly but constantly changing. The Saima of today is different from the Saima of twenty years ago and will be different from today’s Saima twenty years from now. Sure, twenty years from now I’ll be 98 and still cooking chickens for Kesajuhla, but overall, Saima will be different. Saima will change, but its overall mission will be the same (from our bylaws) “to preserve Finnish culture and to integrate it into the culture of the United States,” and “to maintain Saima Park as a living memorial to the Finnish Community.” At the same time, we need to encourage non-Finns, like me, to be part of the Saima community, and be accepting of ideas that might not be strictly Finnish. We are hoping the input of our members via The Survey will help guide Saima’s journey into the future. An extremely important part of that journey will be the involvement of a greater number of people and their ideas, and attracting new members. From the surveys that have already been returned, people are ready and willing to be a part of that future. Please complete the survey and encourage others to do the same.
Case in point, the future is already happening. Last Thursday evening was the very successful first meeting of the Saima Chess Club, organized by Hildy and her daughter Solveig. And, at 10:00 tomorrow morning, Tom Schilling, a Professor at Fitchburg State University,will offer free, the first lecture in a 7-part series, The Nature of Mind, described on our website. It sounds fascinating, and there will not be an exam at the end. Just listen, learn, enjoy.
In a few minutes we will vote for new board members to replace three of our members whohave decided not to re-up, so to speak, Julie Primeau, June Flinkstrom and Donna McCarthy. But don’t worry, they may not be on the board, but they will still be onboard and will continue to be part of our community. Julie, June and Donna, thank you.
Mike Potsaid
October 18, 2026