The 2019 Big Island Rendezvous has been — but I’m still thinking about this great, educational event.

There were 3,000 students, mostly sixth-graders, who went from station to station on Thursday and Friday. They came from area communities to learn how their forefathers and foremothers lived. They came from schools in Rochester, Clear Lake, Byron, Blue Earth and Northfield, to name a few. At least 70 school buses arrived bringing these children.

Many thank you letters were sent by students. After telling what he liked at the festival, one boy wrote, “I want to come again.”

Event organizer, bourgeois, Perry Vining, and his board have planned this event for 33 years; but it is a community project; about 150 volunteers appear each year. They come year after year because they believe in the value of this opportunity to teach students to appreciate their rich American heritage.

Students learned about making candles, how hides are tanned, watched a potter making needed containers, visited the cowboy encampment and the New Ulm Battery with their pre-civil war cannon, to name just a few of the presentations.

They saw how their forefathers and foremothers had to chop wood and carry water and how they had to hunt and fish for food. They learned that 13 people can sleep in a teepee (they sleep like spokes on a wheel), and they danced with the Scottish dancers.

Thank you. Thank you. There are so many individuals and business owners who act as sponsors. These sponsors and volunteers make the Big Island Rendezvous possible. The city of Albert Lea and area citizens are devoted to this project! Again thank you!

I’m already looking forward to the 2020 Big Island Rendezvous.

Eloise Adams

Albert Lea