Meet David Abazs. David is a current board member at Friends of Finland, but that’s not all he has done for our organization. David was one of the people who helped found Friends of Finland nearly 20 years ago. David has served the community in many ways. He was a town supervisor for 20 years, and a member of the Finland Fire Department. David also works with the University of Minnesota as the Executive Director of the Northeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership as part of Extension. He has always been a strong voice in support of our community, our organization, and our mission.

David, along with his wife Lise, moved to Finland in 1988. David grew up in New York, and Lise grew up in Minnesota. They met in college in North Carolina, and originally planned to move to Maine to start a farm. But Lise found herself homesick for Minnesota, and David found that Finland, MN, has similar weather conditions to Maine. So they packed up and moved to the abandoned Ekstrom homestead in Finland, MN, where they worked together to revive and build a thriving home and farm they call Round River Farm.

When David isn’t working, he enjoys curling, playing pickleball, working on farm and forest management projects, and hosting events like his Whiffle Ball Tournament, farming field days, and tours of his farm.

David says: “What I hope and believe is that we can continue to build our community, to not just have a “sense of community” but to “be a community,” with all our differences, skills, and beliefs, supporting each other and the fabric of our community, together, on into the future, setting the table for the next generations to come.”

Finally, David would like to leave us with a quote from Buckminster Fuller: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” David feels that Finland, MN, has been the embodiment of this quote. We have built and maintained the oldest continually operating Cooperative in Minnesota. And it’s not just still operating; it’s thriving. We have come together to build great things. Our community, our community center and its programming, our co-op, fire hall, church, cemetery, and businesses are all a testament to the enduring spirit that continues to empower us and propel us forward to this day.