PONSSE KIDS

You only need some coloured pencils and an open mind!

Juho Kemppainen is an 11-year-old young man from Hoikka village in Hyrynsalmi, Finland. Living in the countryside, Juho has been working on farms and in forests despite his young age.

Juho has a dream of having a tractor of his own, which he at once started to make come true. Juho and his family had seen that wooden torches used and sold in Finland in winter needed some improvement. After thinking about it for a while, they realised that they could do better ones themselves and started making torches on their own backyard. They had shortly made up to a thousand torches and, after their efforts received publicity, orders soon started to flow in. This is how the story of Jätkä-Juho’s traditional handmade wood torches began in Kainuu.

Juho offers his help in the large undertaking to earn funds to make his dream come true, i.e. buy his own tractor. In the future, Juho hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps on a contractor’s path and help him in tractor operations.

Ponsse and Juho Kemppainen have started a partnership to watch how the young man’s life revolves around forests, nature, hobbies and work, and life on a farm. Read more about Juho’s journey in the next issue of Ponsse News.