these arrangements, assisted by Jalmar Mattila, secretary, and Emil Rahko, treasurer.

Turning to relief activities, in December 1917 local Finns started their own Red Cross chapter, in which membership rapidly rose to about 50. Experience gained in that effort was put to use decades later in the Finnish war relief programs. Even before the outbreak of the Finnish Winter War, the Eveleth Kaleva members began to raise funds for the Finnish `Border Relief' program; some $1,500 was collected, and two weeks before the war began this money was sent via American Red Cross to Helsinki. In December 1939 a local chapter of the Help Finland group was organized, with Jack Hill serving as chairman. The Kaleva Ladies, meanwhile, were active in collecting clothing, and their first shipment went out on December 14. The women of the Finnish church began a similar program, and in January there followed a meeting between the two groups to unite as one committee, with special emphasis now placed on the collection of layettes, the first shipment under this program being directed to Madame Kaisa Kallio, wife of the President of Finland, who thanked the committee warmly. In very short order interest had grown to the point where weekly fund-raising program evenings were sponsored, and it was possible to collect more clothing, and for adults as well, to be shipped to various relief organizations in Finland for distribution. American entry into the war brought this program to a halt, but it was resumed in January 1945, with the following officers : Lydia Ibbotson, chairman; Vera Suortti, vicechairman; Briitta Huttula, secretary; Susanna Maikkula, treasurer. The city of Eveleth supplied an auditorium free of charge for the many and varied events sponsored, and once more money and clothing were collected. The largest single shipments to Finland were one for $700 in money, another for 1,032 lbs. of clothing. This program continued officially up to 1949. The Swedish Finnish Runeberg Order participated in this common effort.

The Summer Festivals of the Finns in Northern Minnesota: More significant, perhaps, than the local activity of the Finns of Eveleth has been their role in fostering state-wide, joint midsummer festivals (read: June 24, St. John's Day, the 'midsummer' day in Scandinavia) and in acting as host on several occasions for such festivals.

There are conflicting claims as to who first advanced this idea. In the program brochure of such a festival held in 1913, John Koskela wrote that the proposal had first been made in a meeting of the Otava Chapter Knights of Kaleva and immediately after

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