This year mar­ked a major miles­tone: 55 years since forest mac­hine pio­neer Einari Vidgrén foun­ded the Ponsse fac­tory in his home­town of Vie­remä, Fin­land — and 30 years since we plan­ted roots in the USA. To honor this remar­kable dual anni­ver­sary, we hos­ted a dyna­mic blend of his­tory, inno­va­tion, and celebra­tion. And for some of us, it was truly unfor­get­table — especially those who left with a little less hair!

But this year wasn’t just about celebra­tion. We tur­ned it into a year of gene­ro­sity by part­ne­ring with the Children’s Miracle Network to raise funds for children’s hos­pi­tals. With a lot of laugh­ter and a big-hear­ted spi­rit, we met our goal, rai­sing $30,000. The grand finale? Our Country Mana­ger, Pekka Ruus­ka­nen, bra­vely went bald for the cause. We couldn’t be prou­der of our team, our industry, our fami­lies and eve­ry­one that was invol­ved.

The Demo

The event kic­ked off with a soul­ful ren­di­tion of the Fin­nish Natio­nal Ant­hem sung by our HR Mana­ger Jodi Louwsma, accom­pa­nied by pia­nist Chris­tine Evans. Then our Mar­ke­ting and Com­mu­nica­tions Mana­ger, Chris Nor­ling, amped things up with a rock gui­tar per­for­mance of the U.S. Natio­nal Ant­hem.

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE…. We star­ted by showca­sing the very first mac­hi­nes that arri­ved in the U.S. in the early ‘90s: a HS15 and S15. While the HS15 was up to the task of cut­ting trees, the S15 remai­ned sta­tio­nary sac­ri­ficed for spare parts to keep our cus­to­mers run­ning strong. From there, we rol­led through the evo­lu­tion of Ponsse mac­hi­nes, inclu­ding the HS16, HS10 Cobra har­ves­ters, and S16 forwar­der, ope­ra­ted by our sea­so­ned vete­rans Brad Brown, Jouni Vii­tikka, and Pekka Ruus­ka­nen.

Fast forward to a 2013 8WD Ergo with an H7 head and C4 crane—an impres­sive bridge between past and pre­sent. Then came the stars of today: the Scor­pion Giant, Scor­pion King, Ergo, and Cobra har­ves­ters, fea­tu­ring the new-style H7 and H8 heads, 360° rota­tor, and cra­nes inclu­ding the C5, C44+, C50, and C50+. On the forwar­der side, we showca­sed the Elep­hant, Bison with Active Frame and CVT trans­mis­sion, Buf­falo King, Wisent, Buf­falo with a GMT Grapple Saw and our miles­tone 21,000th machine—a Buf­falo deli­ve­red to Scheff Log­ging in Min­ne­sota. Key fea­tu­res on display inclu­ded the Active Seat, Active Cabin, and Active Crane.

And a special shout-out to our power­house ope­ra­tors — Sum­mer Kopitzke and Gina Kegley — who showed the crowd how it’s done.

The Party

After the demo, guests enjo­yed but­le­red appe­tizers and a gour­met feast by Chef Tom and his talen­ted crew (we’re pretty sure no one left hungry). Then the band UnX­pec­ted brought the house down, pro­ving they are Wisconsin’s ulti­mate party band. To cap off the night? A surprise jaw-drop­ping drone show that left eve­ry­one buzzing.

We welco­med around 600 guests, inclu­ding cus­to­mers, dea­lers, suppliers and 25 from Finland—among them the Fin­nish Mana­ge­ment Team, Vidgrén brot­hers (owners), Pro­duct Mana­gers, IT, and R&D. Nearly all our U.S. emplo­yees were there, many joi­ned by their fami­lies, making this a true celebra­tion of the Ponsse family spi­rit.

Des­pite a few weat­her cur­ve­balls, our team pul­led toget­her to create somet­hing truly unfor­get­table. Thank you to eve­ry­one that showed up! It wouldn’t be a Ponsse party wit­hout our people, our inc­re­dible cus­to­mers, dea­lers, and part­ners. We really do have the best industry in the world! The Ponsse spi­rit is stron­ger than ever, and we can’t wait to see what the next 30 years bring.

Mis­sed the party? Catch the high­lights in our recap video. You can find it on our Face­book and Ins­ta­gram pages @ponsse_north_america.