Finnish American Reporter receives Award of Excellence 2021

The Finnish American Reporter recently received the Finlandia Foundation National Award of Excellence for 2021. Founded in 1986, the FAR is the largest and most widely circulated newspaper for Finns in North America. Editor-in-Chief David Maki accepted the award at FFN’s meeting last month at Finn Camp in Wixom, Michigan.

“We aim to serve the entirety of Finnish America, much like Finlandia Foundation does,” Maki said.

“The Reporter exists because of its customers, it exists for its customers and our customers are also our contributors. Without this support, we’d be nothing, but with these volunteers, apparently, we are achieving quite a bit.”

Finlandia Foundation National President Anne-Mari Paster concurred, saying, “As The Finnish American Reporter celebrates its 35th anniversary, we are proud to recognize this important journal with the Finlandia Foundation National Award of Excellence 2021. … The Finnish American Reporter, the largest such publication in North America, is an important link and means of informing, connecting and strengthening through news and feature articles, personality profiles and general information.

“We must recognize how fortunate we are to have a quality, monthly heritage newspaper dedicated to the common interests of Finnish America and Finland, and what an achievement it is to be able to celebrate its longevity — especially now, when print publications are facing challenges to survive.”

The first biennial Award of Excellence was presented by the FFN to the Seattle Symphony in March 2015 as the symphony celebrated its 150th anniversary of the birth of Jean Sibelius through the orchestra’s three-week program “Luminous Landscapes: The Sibelius Symphonies”.

Since then, recipients of the award included Pauline and John Kiltinen of Marquette, Michigan, for their extraordinary involvement and support of the Finnish-American community, and Finnish cellist Jussi Makkonen and pianist Nazig Azezian for their dedication to performing and building awareness and appreciation of music from Finlandia, especially that of Sibelius, in the United States.

Displayed prominently within Maki’s office is the ceramic plaque, resembling a piece of birch bark.

“It’s hard to express verbally, it’s something that deserves to be seen,” Maki said. “It is very humbling to receive.”

Said Paster: “Finlandia Foundation appreciates the contributions and commitment of The Finnish American Reporter, and wishes for its continued success.”

The Finnish American Reporter offices are located on the second floor of the Finnish American Heritage Center located on Finlandia’s Campus.