In this week’s update: A big Våffeldagen weekend, Mill guide training, a city proclamation and more!
In this milestone 125th anniversary year of the old mill, keep up to date on what staff and volunteers at the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum are doing in your community every day in celebrating the history of Lindsborg and the surrounding region. This weekly update both looks back at what happened last week and looks ahead at what’s coming.
For March 20-26, 2023:
News:
- A special mayoral proclamation about the 125th anniversary of the Old Mill passed at City of Lindsborg Council Meeting on Monday, March 20! You can watch the meeting HERE – the portion relevant to the proclamation starts at about 12:20. The proclamation also declared May 6 “LINDSBORG SMOKY VALLEY ROLLER MILLS 125TH ANNIVERSARY DAY.”
- Last Saturday was a strong weekend with 82 guests – probably closely related to the the 13th annual Våffeldagen celebration in Lindsborg!
- In addition to our museum visitors on Saturday, we also had training for new Old Mill guides and help from Troop 1736 out of Wichita with grounds clean-up!
- Please join us for a free guest speaker event from Thomas Prasch, Professor and Chair of the History Department at Washburn University with “World’s Fair Remnants in Kansas” in the 1904 Swedish Pavilion at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 30.
- The collections committee met Thursday afternoon to clean and sort items in the Train Depot.
- Adding fill dirt and grading the parking lot was completed last weekend.
All Staff
- Attended 125th anniversary proclamation at City Council meeting.
- Continued planning for Millfest and Millfest for Kids.
- Prepared a Millfest mailing to mill owner descendants.
Lenora Lynam, Executive Director
- Assisted a couple and an individual looking for family genealogy information.
- Helped an individual looking for information on a local building they are restoring.
- Helped facilitate mill guide training.
- Started organizing and scanning photos for a new digital image database.
Caroline de Filippis, Community Development Director
- Off on Friday; the report from Caroline in next week’s update will cover two weeks.
Adam Pracht, Marketing and Communications Director
- Social media posts, responding to multiple messages and comments. Sent Facebook invites to individuals expressing interest. (Total Facebook likes has now exceeded 1,700 and total Instagram followers is now more than 200!)
- Posted the annual report to the website.
- Updated website with updated Copies Request Form.
- Started delivering Millfest posters around town.
- Updated admission coupons and started redistribution of them.
- Completed, sent for printing, picked up, and finished new third page brochures.
- Designed and ordered two Millfest ads for Lindsborg News-Record.
- Designed and finalized Millfest ad for Milling & Baking News magazine.
- Worked to set up news coverage.
- Prepared posts for April Match Month with the Smoky Valley Community Foundation.
- Reached out to and researched possible Millfest attractions.
Caroline and Lenora
- Met with board member on revisions and updates to exhibits in the Swedish Pavilion.
Volunteers
- Cathy Ahlstedt, Carol Gusenius, and Jerry Sperling: Monday front desk coverage.
- Cathy Ahlstedt: Saturday afternoon front desk coverage.
- Julie Ann Neywick: Scanning photos.
- Carla Wilson: Donated time and materials to create a new front porch open sign.