President's Message

Dear Museum Members and Friends:

     Welcome to the Grand Opening of the Finnish Heritage Museum of Fairport Harbor.  The story of Fairport Harbor and the story of the Finns is tightly intertwined.  You can’t separate them, one from the other.  And so it is with all the nationalities in Fairport.  They are all a part of our shared American experience.  The village has been, and continues to be a “melting pot”, in the best sense of the American tradition.

     Tonight we celebrate a beginning; the start of a journey of exploration and discovery.  No matter what your nationality, exploring your heritage honors those who came before.  The building we have prepared honors our Finnish ancestors and preserves their memory for our children’s children.  It is place of exploration, discovery, and enlightenment.

     The museum is a storehouse of exhibits, presentations and activities that may take you back in time to Fairport Harbor at the turn of the century; or perhaps to a Temperance meeting during prohibition.  Or to a fishing village in Finland, where a lure was invented that became a favorite the world over.  Or perhaps to grieve with a wife and children over a lost father and husband, killed in an accident on the stone docks.  Stories, objects, ideas, knowledge, attitudes, wisdom, and even superstitions, are all here.  The collective wisdom and experiences of innumerable lifetimes will be available to be explored.  We will learn about ourselves, our families, our culture,
society and customs.

     It is my honor, as president, to invite you to visit the museum, participate as a member and most of all explore the heritage that is part of each of us.  

Heikki A. Penttila
 President 
 Finnish Heritage Museum
June 30, 2007 (address at the Grand Opening Banquet and in Commemorative Booklet)