Past Events and News Page 1
| The KevOs4 group had several members in Florida in February, 2008, to sell militaria at the gunshows and cook pancakes at the Finnish cultural events. Here, Pentti and Timo show off their uniforms in Brooksville at the machine gun shoot. They had a great selection of tunics and Finnish militaria for sale. Many of these items can be found in the Finnish "Gear for Sale" page on this website. | ![]() |
![]()
| In July, 2007, Brent Snodgrass (from Gunboards.com) and Marshall Kregel (webmaster - KevOs4) went to the FinnFest 2007 Finnish Festival in Ashtabula, Ohio. Brent set up a tremendous display for the event and included some very rare military items used by the Finnish army during the war. On display were some rare tunics, rifles, pistols, helmets, newspapers, and many other items. It was worth the trip just to see this display! Marshall was working on his book project and interviewing Finnish war veterans. More about that project can be seen at www.FinnishWarrior.com. There were close to 4000 visitors to FinnFest this year, and as many as half of those visitors made their way through the display at one time or another. There was a large screen TV in one corner playing old Finnish war movies, and in the opposite corner, there was a CD player with Finnish songs that were popular during the war. With the large picture boards, background music, videos, and large table displays, it ranked as of the best Finnish Military History displays ever put together in the U.S. | |||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]()
|
A visit to Finland House in Lantana Florida, Feb. 2007
While meeting some Finnish friends in Lake Worth, Florida, I visited the Finland House and met Col. (ret.) Harry Manner who is the curator of the Finnish War Museum at Finland House. This is an excellent collection of Larry Thorne information, as well as documentation on Finnish medals from early century through WWII. The "Wall of Honor" is a most impressive display of medals and awards given to American Finns who fought during the Winter or Continuation Wars. |
||||
|
The Larry Thorne display with books, documents, medals, and uniform. |
A close-up of the types of medals issued to Larry Thorne. |
The "Wall of Honor" at Finland House in Lantana Florida |
||
|
The awards issued to the curator's (Harry Manner's) father during the war. |
Rows upon Rows of medals on display. |
|||
|
This is a wood carving of General Mannerheim. Amazing quality!!! |
Marshall (left) poses with Col.(ret) Harry Manner of the Finland House. |
|||
![]()
Show of Shows in Louisville, Kentucky, the 23, 24, and 25th of February, 2006
|
Joe, Jack, John and and Marshall set up a table at the huge militaria Show of Shows in Louisville. The KevOs4 table was overflowing with gear, books, helmets and dvds. We raised some good money for the KevOs4 bank account which will be used for future events. We all wore our Finn uniforms on Friday and Saturday during the show and that got a lot of attention.
We had guests from
Finland who joined us at the table. There were 2 huge canvas
bags full of patches, cleaning kits, slings, ammo pouches and other
gear to put on the table. Sales were brisk but there is a lot
of great items still available. We are making a list of these
items and will put them on the website in the Gear For Sale section.
We recruited around 5
or 6 new members and got them some gear together. We also had
several folks come by and join the group who already had all of the
Finnish uniforms together and wanted to participate in shows and
speeches. One new member has a complete tankers uniform with
leather tunic and pants. Now, we need to get Tero to build us a
tank!
Tero donated some
items to the KevOs4 group to sell at the show and this helped us
make some money for the group. Thank you Tero!
Jim Kippola and his
wife came by several times over the long weekend. Ben Strout, the
producer of Fire and Ice, came down to spend a few hours with us
also. There were many dealers who dropped by the table and told us
they were glad we were at the show. There was so much German and
American gear at this show and we were the only pure Finnish table
there.
|
![]()
Click Here to read a special report on FinnFest 2005 by Brent Snodgrass of MosinNagant.net
Additional Pictures from FinnFest 2005 by Marshall Kregel and Joe Strohl
Pictures from Joe Strohl during the FinnFest 2005 in Marquette, Michigan.
Website designed and owned by
Marshall Kregel
webmaster@kevos4.com
Copyright © 2003 - 2007 Marshall Kregel. No parts of the website may be
reproduced without prior authorization. All rights reserved.
Revised:
March 04, 2008 .