“Things are bound to be alright, one way or another”, assures the manager of the restaurant services, Johanna Rintapää. A bit over forty-year-old Johanna originates from Kauhava. She has lived in the Jämsä region for over twenty years, first in Kuorevesi and now closer to down town, in Kilpakorpi. In Kilpakorpi Johanna lives in a one family house with her husband Vesa Rintapää and her two daughters, Jenni, 13, and Essi, 10. The family also has a bunny called Lumi.

Food becomes a profession

Johanna works as a student counsellor in Mänttä-Vilppula. – My working career has taken place in the school world. In 1995 I started as a teacher for facility management and catering. In 2010 I transferred to student counselling. – A big part of my work has been associated with food, which probably explains why I value good food, Johanna laughs.

The family does together

Summer is Johanna’s most favourite season. And thats obvious, as the family’s shared interest is boating. – We have a boat on Lake Päijänne and many islands and harbours have become familiar over the summers. Spring is also astonishing time as the sun starts to warm and you can start planning to scrub the boat.

Next Spring Johanna might have other things on her mind than scrubbing the boat, as organising the Jukola takes a lot of her spare time. – After a succesful Jukola it will be great to enjoy the summer on Lake Päijänne’s waves, Johanna says confidently.

Alongside boating the Rintapää family likes to be out and about with a GPS device. -It offers wandering in the forest, incredible spots and sights in nature, similar to orienteering, but with the help of a GPS device. – This Autumn I have also practised to orienteer. I have been to six orienteering nights and luckily have made it to the finish line every time. According to Johanna orienteering is a good hobby for the whole family as tracks for all ages and shapes are offered. People are nice and help is always available.

Big job with Jukola

Johanna has not been an active orienteer and assinging to Jukola’s organisation came as a bit of a surprise. – We used to live as neighbours to the Lajunen family for several years and then Jaakko asked if I wanted to be responsible for restaurant services if there was going to be a Jukola realy in Jämsä. Obviously I promised to be in. And here we are to make that promise come true.

After realising how big a project Jukola is, Johanna has been overwhelmed by the responsible job a couple of times. – On the other hand, I have thought how amazingly great an experience this is and that these kinds of opportunities don’t come along very often. Sure it is a great position of responsibility to be in charge of feeding about 30 000 people.

The task of the restaurant committee is to plan and execute the restaurant functions for competition restaurant, grills, media serving and volunteer feeding. Johanna’s biggest concern is to gather volunteers, as she needs between 300 and 400.

– At the moment there are two members in the restaurant team excluding me and they are also professionals. Many things are still being planned. The menu is tentatively planned, but minor changes may occur. The final menu is greatly affected by which deliverer will deliver the food to Jämsä-Jukola. – We promise to serve porridge also during night time and always when people ask for it, Johanna promises.

Johanna has been observing the organising of the past two Jukolas. She states that the execution in 2011 was very different to what it was in June this year.

Johanna encourages everybody to participate Jukola as a volunteer. -All hands are needed and everybody is a pro at something, we need everybody’s contribution!

 

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