Picture: Markus Sjöberg 

Unna's art workshops bring joy, color, and community spirit to Kerkonkoski 

Unna Paananen has been creative since childhood and missed opportunities to practice her craft skills in adulthood, during the so-called peak years, until her 16-year entrepreneurial career ended in disability. That's when a new world opened up in art. In 2018, she received a space from the city of Kerava for an open art workshop. The workshop was aimed at working-age people, mainly those with substance abuse and mental health problems. She managed to run the art workshop in Kerava for a couple of years until the corona “closed everything”. The open, low-threshold art workshop proved to be meaningful to its visitors in many ways. – It strengthens, among other things, a sense of self-worth through experiences of success and belonging to a community. Visual arts also allow you to release your emotions and ease your psychological burden if speaking is difficult, says Paananen.

Unna Paananen has been creative since childhood and missed opportunities to practice her craft skills in adulthood, during the so-called Peak years, until her 16-year entrepreneurial career ended in disability. That's when a new world opened up in art. In 2018, she received a space from the city of Kerava for an open art workshop. The workshop was aimed at working-age people, mainly those with substance abuse and mental health problems. She managed to run the art workshop in Kerava for a couple of years until the corona "closed everything". The open, low-threshold art workshop proved to be meaningful to its visitors in many ways. – It strengthens, among other things, a sense of self-worth through experiences of success and belonging to a community. Visual arts also allow you to release your emotions and ease your psychological burden if speaking is difficult, says Paananen.

How did Unna find her way to Kerkonkoski? Unna, who is from Kerava, has been visiting her friend's cottage in Kerkonkoski since 2004, but one rainy autumn evening in the Kerkonkoski harbour, an encounter took place that changed the woman's life. There was a group of people sitting at the harbour's campfire site for the evening, and Unna and her friends joined them. The smoke in her eyes swirled so much that Unna had to change places and soon she found herself next to Toni. The evening lasted until the wee hours of the morning and Unna remembers thinking about her strong feelings at night: "What is this guy really like?" A love at first sight was born, which still lives on today. The engagement was soon announced and in the summer of 2022 the couple's wedding was celebrated at the Kerkonkoski Oasis.

Pictures: Johanna Koponen 

We come here as if to our home 

I drive along the dirt road that runs along the banks of the Kerkonkoski canal through an old spruce forest. When I arrive at the yard, a log house rises in front of me, with a small red cottage next to it. I get a hint from a worker who is found in the log house under construction that the host couple can be found in the cottage. I climb a few steps into the cottage and take off my shoes. I am welcomed with a smiling face into the house, whose ragged carpets and the summery light reflecting from the old windows take my thoughts back to the summers of my childhood. As I step inside from the hallway, the cottage’s owner, Peter, looks at my feet and rushes to put on slippers for me. Understanding German a little, I hear Annuka say, “Yes. Here in Finland, we take off our shoes inside.”

We sit in low-backed armchairs at a round table with a lace tablecloth, and I am offered warm tea. I admire the classic 70s-style chairs out loud. Annukka tells me that the chairs came with the cottage and that she has recently had them upholstered by a seamstress from Kerkonkoski. I each sip tea from a decorated porcelain cup and immerse myself in listening to the story of the Enzensberger couple.

When Annukka, a high school student from Lahti, left for Germany in 1970, she probably didn't think that she would end up in that situation. After receiving her Finnish passport, she was able to study at the University of Mainz as a translator. Even before she started her studies, on her trip to Sonthofen, she met a young architecture student, Peter. The affair with the German boy went well right from the start, and soon Peter's mother also invited Annukka and her friends to the village. At the end of the visit, the young people headed to a local disco and Peter invited his cousin along. After all, he couldn't take care of three Finnish girls alone, and it so happened that Annukka's best friend Maija fell in love with Peter's cousin, whom she later married.

Annukka graduated from the University of Mainz with a diploma in translation, but there were few jobs in the field, so she ended up studying to become a teacher. The couple found their home in the small, picturesque rural village of Schielberg. Annukka worked as a teacher in the small village school in the same village for 30 years. Peter, on the other hand, has had a great career as an architect and has designed a wide range of projects, including the restoration of historical, protected sites, public and industrial buildings, and private houses. The interest in historical buildings is also evident in the Enzensbergers' German home, which is 285 years old and surrounded by a lush garden. Fachwerkhaus i.e. a traditional German half-timbered house.

So what made the couple buy that red cottage in Kerkonkoski? The region was already familiar to the couple, as they had first visited the summer cottage of Maija's parents, Annukka's friend mentioned earlier, for the first time a couple of decades ago. When it was time for Maija to give up her summer place four years ago, Annukka and Peter offered to buy a beautiful waterfront plot with buildings. Even then, they had the idea of ​​building on the same plot, as the current cottage was too small to accommodate the couple's daughter's family and friends. Spending time with loved ones is more precious than gold for the couple.

Pictures: Minna Vauhkonen 

Delicious school meals for generations 

Hellu Lappi is a familiar face to many Kerkonkoski residents. She has fed two generations of children in the village. This spring, Hellu turned 22 years old as the cook at Kerkonjoki School, and it was time to retire. The timing was natural, because as the number of students at the school decreased, the food services were also reduced. With the transfer of the welfare area, the food supply for early childhood education, school children and upper secondary school students has been centralized in Rautalammi to Matti Lohi's central kitchen, from which lunch is transported to, among others, Kerkonjoki School.

Hellu used to prepare up to 80 lunches in the school kitchen. There were more students, but lunches were also prepared for the elderly in the village in the school kitchen, from where they were delivered warm to the elderly by a home delivery service. This year, this also changed, as the food services for the elderly were transferred to Servica.

There are challenges in outsourcing catering. Food is fuel for us, and children, if any, demand that it be tasty. It goes without saying that when food is prepared in your own kitchen for a smaller number of people, the quality is more like home-cooked food than ready-made food. Hellu knew and felt the students, and was able to plan the dishes accordingly. After trying some spices, the feedback was immediate and the next time the cook knew how to play it safe. “Pizzas and other things are part of the treat days. Children do know how to appreciate normal home-cooked food,” Hellu points out.

When autumn came, it was easy to get to know new students at Kerkonjoki School. In the small village, many of the children were already familiar to Hellu when they started school. If not, they might at least seem familiar because Hellu had already fed their sisters or even their parents in the past.

The school says: “All the holidays and seasons were reflected in the school canteen and food in many ways. There were chicks and eggs, Runeberg tarts, and on May Day, Hellu baked doughnuts and made mead until it was sold!” As expected, Christmas was also visible and tasted at Kerkonjoki School: “Perhaps the best memories are Hellu’s incredible gingerbread houses. At Christmas, she also made one for the school and decorated a gingerbread for each child in the surprise bag of the Advent calendar. 

Pictures: Johanna Koponen 

Huttula's life 

When visiting the village of Kerkonkoski, you can't help but gaze at the Huttula farm. In the summer, it stands peacefully amidst dandelion fields. In the winter, Huttula is like a small island from a bygone era, surrounded by a white blanket of snow.

The history of the main house that stands on the plot today dates back to 1882, but the history of the Huttula farm is even older. Along the Kerkonkoski Canal The book says that the current light blue-gray house is not the original main building of the farm, but a large log house stood next to it in the 18th century. That red-earthed house was demolished in the 1940s, when the brothers on the farm divided the property in half. The Vataja farm was built from the logs and the fields and cows were divided equally. The first Markkanen, Juho by name, settled in the house in 1851 when he married the farm's daughter, Erika Hänninen. From those years until today, the mailbox has been adorned with Markkanen's name.

Sitting across from me at the coffee table are Olli and Päivi Markkanen, the former owners of the farm. Olli was born and raised on the farm. He says he always knew he wanted to be a farmer, and he completed his studies at the Suonenjoki Agricultural School. As his life progressed, Olli felt that something was missing from his rural landscape. Päivi, who had faced challenges elsewhere in her life, asked her late mother: “If you hear my prayer, send me someone I can live with.”

Päivi and Olli's paths crossed in 1985. It's been a long time, but the warm love between the couple still blossoms. It was July when Päivi was driving from a trip to Lapland with her daughter Laura on the 5-way towards her home in Kerava. Since the trip was long, she decided to point the front of the Datsun 100A towards Juankoski, where her family lived. Päivi's sister was also there, and when evening came, the sisters and their cousins ​​were excited to go see what was going on in the village. They headed to a local restaurant and were met at the door by a doorman who announced that the restaurant was reserved for two weddings. After a little negotiation, the doorman let the girls in, but swore them not to tell which wedding party they were in.

It wasn't long before Päivi was the bravest, peeking out from the door of the ballroom despite the snickering of her friends. Little did Päivi know that at that moment the pages of the rest of her life were being written in big leaps. Olli was a wedding guest at the party in question, and he caught sight of a woman peeking in from the other side of the hall. He said out loud: "That's it."

Päivi's lively energy captured the young man's heart, and Päivi remembers Olli wondering: "What exactly are you?" From that evening on, they continued to get to know each other between Kerkonkoski and Kerava using landline phones, and it was noticed that things were going very well. In October of the same year, Olli traveled to Päivi's place in Kerava, and at the turn of the year, they celebrated their engagement in Kerava.

Pictures: Johanna Koponen 

For the love of engines 

Many people know that Kerkonkoski has several smaller villages, one of which is the village of Repola. Sami Hämäläinen also lives there, whom our story wizard hit this time. I turn into the yard on a snowy road that runs alongside the fields. It is a rare sunny December morning and Sami has just finished clearing the snow in the yard with his old and faithful tractor.

 There are two houses and a large barn on the plot. There are no cows or other animals in the yard, but even a quick glance shows that the barn has been renovated. I step onto the porch of the relatively new house and knock on the door. Sami greets me cheerfully and invites me in. The oven is roaring with fire.

Sami was born in Rautalampi, but has also lived in Suonenjoki. As a child, he spent a lot of time on the farm, where he built his current home in 2014. The place is dear to him, because the house next door is his father's childhood home and was built by his father. Sami points to the window and I see a red house and a few other buildings on the other side of the field: "And that's where my father lives."

 Hämäläinen became an entrepreneur in 2007. Sami's employer at the time had his hands full and offered Sami one of his trucks. The deals came and since then Sami's company, Hämy Trans Oy, has expanded. The company currently owns five trucks of various sizes, from full trailers to fish transport trucks, which Sami has built and equipped to suit the needs of his customers. The man's thumb is certainly not in the middle of the palm of his hand and he is also a partner in a heavy equipment sandblasting, painting and repair company.

Hämy Trans transports wood chips, sawdust, sawn timber and pulp. Special and machine transports as well as crane transports are also handled. The company's operations specialize in the transport of live fish. Fish and their fry, from rainbow trout to sea trout, are transported by Hämy Trans mainly in Finland, even as far as the Åland Islands. Fish has also been delivered to Russia, but due to the corona and the war, the trips to the eastern border have stopped. Fortunately, a replacement activity has been found. "And I don't miss the constant border hassle," says Sami.