Association

Kaukametsäläiset is the founder of Jukola relay. It is an association, which holds the ownership and the rights to Jukola. The association was founded on the 30th of June 1948 as an initiative of certain orienteering clubs in Helsinki and its surroundings. The association has devoted itself to only one cause: its objective is to ensure that the Jukola relay is arranged every year with high quality, and that the traditions of Jukola relay are respected in the spirit of the book called Seven Brothers by a Finnish national author, Aleksis Kivi. The max. number of invited members in the association is 77. The members have acquired merits in the various sectors of the orienteering sport: as organizers of big competitions, as course setters, trainers, orienteering champions, or in some other activities closely related to orienteering. Members and The comittee The president of the association Kaukametsäläiset chairs the Jukola leading team. As a tradition, the association chooses each year a topic for the event of the Jukola relay. Related to this topic also a message is composed, which greets a group or a community or an institution, or raises a current topic which attracts the attention of the public, or is in one way or another significant. The runner of the last leg in the winning team then reads this message aloud after finishing the race. The association uses some of its extra funds to promote the orienteering sport, as grants to the top level and young orienteers. But it also pays attention to other orienteering related matters by sponsoring the equipment, and the other technical development of the sport, and by financing the environmental surveys.