Embarrass’s “Community Night Out” growing in popularity

EMBARRASS- The lawn chairs were set up at least a half a dozen rows deep, and the always popular Bill Maxwell and his Cowboy Angel Blue band played on an outdoor stage in front of the Seitaniemi Housebarn, Embarrass’s one-of-a-kind log structure that helps tell the story of the town’s Finnish immigrants.
The annual event, which somehow always manages to coincide with unseasonably nice fall weather, offered tours of the housebarn, live music, free ice cream, and chili, cornbread and pie for purchase.
This year, Sisu partnered up with the Embarrass Region Fair Association, which provided kids’ games, free ice cream cones, and prizes for the area children who had participated in the Embarrass Kids Club events throughout the summer, completing the Embarrass history treasure hunt.
After running out of chili, pie, and cornbread last year, Sisu volunteers upped their food preparation by 25-percent. This meant almost 75 quarts of homemade chili and 30 homemade pies, sold by the piece. At the end of the event, almost everything was gone. A few extra slices of pie were handed out to the musicians, and a few event-goers who had stuck around after the music was over also scored a second dessert.
“I think it is the best night we’ve had,” said Sisu board member and pie wrangler Mickey White. “And we signed up new members for Sisu Heritage, which is always good.”
They did run out of coffee, and had quite a few requests for decaf, White said.
“But real Finns don’t drink decaf,” she noted.
Marlin Bjornrud, who was busy selling Sisu Heritage merchandise and tickets for the group’s annual raffle, said this was the biggest crowd he’s ever seen at the event.
He said the partnership with the fair association brought several new families with young children, who enjoyed both the music and time playing on the grounds. “We are hoping they will come back next year,” Bjornrud said.
While the event attracts many of the same families year to year, there were still plenty of people who had never seen the unique building, and one family even traveled from Bovey this year, he said. This event, along with Sauna Day in June, and a concert at the Apostolic Lutheran Church, are all fundraisers for Sisu’s restoration work. This year the group raised enough from their generous business sponsors to cover all the event costs, meaning all the money raised from food sales are able to go directly into the group’s work of restoring and maintaining Embarrass’s historic architecture.
“This housebarn is so special and unique,” Bjornrud said.
The housebarn, set almost three miles down a dead-end gravel road off Hwy. 21, is set on land that is now owned by Sisu Heritage. The housebarn is open to the public during this annual concert, and private tours can be arranged by contacting Sisu Heritage.
Sisu is waiting to hear later this month on their latest grant request to the Minnesota Historical Society for $265,000 which would fund the majority of the work needed to complete the restoration. They are working with LHB Architects on this phase of the project. Sisu has already repaired the foundation, replaced the roof, replaced windows, repaired and replaced damaged logs, and other major work needed to stabilize the building, which dates back to 1907. This new grant would pay for completing the exterior walls, repairing and restoring siding, and work on the interior of the cow barn section. The final phase of the project will be restoring the interior of the house portion of the housebarn. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. You can learn more about Sisu Heritage at their website, https://sisuheritage.org/.