COOK- For those eagerly awaiting the big parade on Sunday that caps off the three-day Timber Days festival here, a word of advice. If the parade moves at the speed of its grand marshal, Steve Kajala, get there early and don’t blink, or you may just miss it.
One would think that running his prospering Prudential Financial Planning Services office in Cook, riding herd over his five children, hunting and fishing, collecting cast-iron cookware and chain saws, and teaching cooking classes would be more than enough to run anyone ragged, but not Kajala. He thrives on activity as well as giving back to the community, and in his four years in Cook he has become a prominent volunteer for many of the town’s philanthropic activities.
“When I got the call and they said, ‘We would like you to be the grand marshal, I was like wow, I know, I do a lot, but I haven’t been here all that long. But they said they wanted to recognize people who are making a difference in the community, and also that they wanted to encourage other people who maybe haven’t been active to start, because it does not take that long to make a difference. I said that works for me.”
Cook has been sort of a home away from home for Kajala all his life. The son of George and Margaret Kajala, of Virginia, the Kajalas had a place along Oak Narrows on Lake Vermilion, where they spent a great deal of time over the years.
“We loved the area and always came up to the lake to the cabin here,” Kajala said. “And now it’s my house.”
After graduating from Virginia High School in 1998 and then completing a degree from University of Minnesota-Duluth, Kajala embarked on a career as an independent financial adviser. While he started in the Twin Cities, he stayed connected to the area here by opening offices in Virginia and Grand Rapids.
That changed as Kajala’s career shifted to working for established financial companies Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.
“I lived in Duluth twice, Destin, Fla., Tampa, Fla., Albany, N.Y., and then back in the Twin Cities,” Kajala said. “I spent five years living in the suburbs in the Cities and had no time to come up here. And I was like we have this place on Lake Vermilion that doesn’t even get used, and this is where I wanted to be, so I made the decision to come back.”
Prudential was a company that proved to be a good match with Kajala’s desire to relocate.
“They were very favorable to having people in small towns,” he said.
Community engagement
Kajala’s first experience in volunteer activities came when he joined the Cook Lions Club.
“I didn’t join right away, I joined in the winter of 2019 and got quite active there.”
So active that he became club president, and the Lions would be hard-pressed to find a better ambassador.
“The Lions Club is just fantastic,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s anywhere in the world that has a per capita membership number like we do. In a town of not even 600 people, we have 64 Lions in town. We’re drawing some from outside the area, but still, that’s phenomenal. It makes it fun, enjoyable, and easy compared to nonprofits where it’s literally two or three people doing all the lifting at every event.”
As with most organizations, the COVID pandemic affected some of the club’s activities, but it didn’t stop Kajala from pursuing a goal to diversify the membership.
“When I joined the Lions Club I was 38 or 39, and there was only one other individual in their thirties. A lot of our active members are in their eighties, and most of them are over 65,” he said. “Now, we’ve got close to a double-digit number of folks who are under 50, and several under 40 in the club. It’s been fun to bring them in, and for a lot of them, it’s their first volunteering experience and they’ve really taken to it.”
Kajala has been very active in the Cook Friends of the Parks organization as well. If you had driven past the new Veterans Riverfront Park on Monday, you’d have seen him there, with other volunteers, planting trees donated by Cook Hospital staff.
And he’s also had an active role on past Timber Days organizing committees, serving as a co-chair for putting together last year’s event. Chances are good that if there’s a need for volunteers for a particular issue, Kajala will be tempted to add a helping hand.
“I obviously enjoy volunteering, and that’s the reason why I do it,” he said.
But he encourages anyone with an interest in volunteering to jump right in. There are plenty of established groups that are active and welcoming to newcomers.
“What I would say is just give it a try because it’s probably not going to be as hard as you think it is,” Kajala said. “A lot of people think putting on multi-day events is a lot of hard work, but when you spread it out it’s not that bad.”
And if there are a few extra hands jumping in, Kajala might just spend a little more time with his kids doing all of the things they love together.
“There’s Parker, who’s 17, Evan is 16, Vince is 14, Lila is 11, and Chloe is nine,” he said. “We love to travel, we love the outdoors, boating and swimming, some fishing, although that seems to fall by the wayside sometimes. And there’s hunting and four-wheeling and snowmobiling and canoeing. We really enjoy doing that stuff.”
Not surprisingly, he’s also raising the next generation of volunteers. You might just see one or two or more if you stop by the Lions Club Brat Shack at Zup’s Market, or look closely at volunteers picking up litter along Hwy. 1, or, or, or … because it’s good when your needs are met, Kajala said, to turn to taking care of the needs of others and the community.