Phyllis Fredendall and her husband Hannu Leppanen have been selected as the 2025 Hankookin Heikit honorees. (Provided Photo)

HANCOCK — Upper Michigan native Phyllis Fredendall has been furthering Finnish-American heritage and culture professionally and passionately since the early 1990s. For her husband Hannu Leppänen, it’s been even longer.

With cultural resumes that stretch back decades, and an unwavering sense of positivity and humility, it’s no wonder the pair was selected by the Copper Country Finns and Friends as the 2025 Hankookin Heikit honorees.

Leppänen, a Finland native, first came to the Copper Country in the 1970s; he was a student at Suomi College during that decade. He eventually moved to Minnesota’s Twin Cities, where his Finnish cultural passion was fulfilled as he served as a member of the Finnish folk dance group Kisarit.

He returned to Hancock, accepting a position in information technology at Suomi, which then became Finlandia University, where his role spilled over from the computer to being a “resident Finn,” where his advice and insights about Finland’s protocols was often sought by university leadership when hosting dignitaries, political leaders or other visitors of high esteem.

When he wasn’t behind the desk, Hannu could regularly be found on stage, taking roles in several stage productions, including some performed in the Finnish language.

Throughout the decades, Leppänen’s primary passion was dance, and it’s through that passion that he met his eventual life and dance partner, Phyllis. A long-serving professor of fiber and fashion design at Suomi/Finlandia, and one of the first-ever employees of the Finnish American Heritage Center, Fredendall’s professional career is a tapestry of Finnish-American and Finnish culture both in the classroom and beyond.

Fredendall taught weaving, spinning, felt making and numerous other fiber arts courses at the university. She studied weaving in several U.S. states, as well as in western Canada; studied garment design in New York City; and studied felt making, as well as printing and dyeing, in Finland. She’s been a visiting lecturer in Finland, Estonia and Canada, and has several artist residencies on her resume. Her most recent endeavors were serving as a director of the Finnish American Folk School, and studying traditional weaving techniques and folk school study models in Finland through an American Scandinavian Foundation fellowship.

Together, Phyllis and Hannu – who are both members of the CCFAF, which is the local chapter of Finlandia Foundation National — have been strong advocates for Finnish-American and Finnish culture.

Leppänen’s and Fredendall’s first “official” duty as Hankookin Heikit will be to preside over the Heikinpäivä festival parade on Saturday, Jan. 25. It’s expected they’ll be perched atop “Big Louie,” the giant kicksled that represents the significance and magnitude of Finnish cultural influence in the Copper Country.

The honor of Hankookin Heikki is bestowed annually by the CCFAF (formerly known as the City of Hancock’s Finnish Theme Committee), which has hosted the Heikinpäivä Midwinter Festival each January for the past 25 years. The award is given each year to a person, family or organization who has exhibited extraordinary effort toward preservation and promotion of Finnish culture in the Copper Country and beyond.

For more information about Heikinpäivä, or the Copper Country Finns and Friends, email finnishtheme@gmail.com, or visit heikinpaiva.org.