Finland will celebrate its centennial of independence and Canada its 150 birthday in 2017. An excellent year to honor with a book the accomplishments of Finnish-Canadians during the past century.

After searching for nominations for 1.5 years I have found just over 600 persons, businesses and projects as candidates to be profiled in the book. However, I know that many deserving Finnish-Canadians are still missing from the list. Therefore I am asking for your help in finding them by word of mouth. If the entire Finnish community searches, then there will be a smaller number of missed exceptional Finns. In order to help your memory a bit, I will suggest a few categories:

-Finnish-Canadian organizers

-Finnish-Canadian organizations and community projects

-Special individual accomplishments

-Successful businesses

-Academics – appointed to University or College faculty, or senior researchers (Ph.D.)

-Athletes – Canadian Champs medal (Men’s or women’s class, not Juniors. or Veterans) oWorld Championship or Olympic team members

-Coaches, Sr. Sport officials

-Outstanding work careers

-Aviation, Armed Forces

-Authors, Historians

-Artists, Musicians, Singers

-Performance groups, Politicians

-Other outstanding accomplishments

The nominees must have roots in Finland and they must be deemed to be Finnish-Canadians. Thus those working here on temporary contracts can’t be considered for this book. The candidates do not have to be still living to be recognized. Especially difficult to find are those with non-Finnish names. They can be located only through personal or community help. Thank you for assisting with this project to commemorate the accomplishments of our fellow Finnish-Canadians. We can be very proud of them. Let’s not allow them to slip out of our collective memory. 

Please send a nominee’s name, hometown, contact phone number and/or e-mail address and a few words of description of the accomplishment(s) to Veli Niinimaa. Tuhannet kiitokset!

Text: Veli Niinimaa

Read the longer version from Kanadan Sanomat!