UUKUNIEMI, Finland — The county residents of small Uukuniemi County in Finland received a nice surprise recently. They were expecting about half a shelf of books and videos from the United States, but were delighted to see 1,300 pounds of books and videos delivered to their library.
Spencer P. Carmack of the Lawrence Station Ward, Los Altos California Stake, heard that the 567 inhabitants of Uukuniemi on the Finnish-Russian border had no books in foreign languages in their library. He chose to help the people as part of his Eagle project.
Spencer, 18, worked with his Scout troop and took fliers requesting donations, then returned to collect books and videos left on the porches of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale residents. After sorting, the books were shipped to Finland in February.
Jari Venhovaara, Director of Recreation for Uukuniemi, called the books interesting, developmental, and entertaining. Mayor Sisko Ronka said that this gift was like a ray of sunshine in a dark winter night. The county received four years' worth of books in one shipment.
To accommodate this new collection, the library was expanded and one room was dedicated to this English collection.