Ponsse Ladies’ acti­vi­ties are full of posi­tive thoughts, nice people, team spi­rit and ent­husiasm.

The idea of the Ponsse Ladies club is to bring toget­her the spouses of cont­rac­tors using PONSSE forest mac­hi­nes, as well as female forest mac­hine cont­rac­tors, and offer them oppor­tu­ni­ties to build networks through joint acti­vi­ties. All the club mem­bers have some kind of con­nec­tion to forests and forest-rela­ted busi­ness ope­ra­tions. Cont­rac­tors’ spouses are often also acti­vely invol­ved in the day-to-day ope­ra­tions of the har­ves­ting com­pany.

The club came into exis­tence at the Finn­Metko trade fair in 2004 and is the­re­fore celebra­ting its 20th anni­ver­sary this year. Almost 270 people are invol­ved in the club in Fin­land, and the actions has expan­ded to seve­ral dif­fe­rent count­ries.

Ponsse Ladies are uni­ted by a desire to share expe­riences and thoughts rela­ted to both work and lei­sure. Joint trai­ning and sha­red expe­riences have strengt­he­ned their pro­fes­sio­nal skills and networks.

In Fin­land, Ponsse Ladies’ acti­vi­ties are led by Pia Kai­nu­lai­nen and Piia Vidgren, as well as Eve­liina Virk­ku­nen, who has been invol­ved for almost a year. Close friends­hips built over the years are also what Ponsse Ladies are all about.

“The mem­bers meet 1–3 times a year and also keep in touch between mee­tings and events. In this group, if anyw­here, the eve­ry­day life of forest mac­hine ent­repre­neurs is unders­tood. When they meet, the laugh­ter and lively discus­sion can be heard far away,” Piia Vidgren says.

Pia and Piia have been in the club from the very begin­ning and have fond memo­ries of the ladies’ trips abroad.

“The high points include culi­nary expe­riences around the world. For example, in Pärnu in Esto­nia, we enjo­yed Mulgi por­ridge at a blacksmith’s shop. Yxta­holm Castle in Swe­den was majes­tic, and Ron­dele Ranch hos­ted by Ponsse Ladies in the Uni­ted Sta­tes was a won­der­fully unique expe­rience! Glass-blowing in Norway, bag­pi­pes in Scot­land, Char­les Bridge in Pra­gue, the green moors of Ire­land, two visits to Ger­many, Ponsse Ladies Inter­na­tio­nal Mee­ting in Évora, Por­tu­gal toget­her with the USA, Swe­den and Ger­many Ladies, world-famous sites: the Great Wall of China, Tia­nan­men Square, Her­mi­tage and the Eif­fel Tower. We have wal­ked along the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe and crui­sed on the Seine. In the Uni­ted Sta­tes, we saw the Sta­tue of Liberty and expe­rienced the never-ending beat of Man­hat­tan and the flas­hing lights of Times Square. The ruins of the Twin Towers left us silent with a heavy heart. We also had the oppor­tu­nity to have lunch at the Con­sul General’s resi­dence by Cent­ral Park in New York. In addi­tion to all this, we have lear­ned about har­ves­ting and forest mana­ge­ment acti­vi­ties in each country when he have visi­ted the local sub­si­diary or dea­ler.

In Fin­nish des­ti­na­tions, we always have some sort of orga­ni­sed acti­vity, from colour ana­ly­sis and win­ter dri­ving trai­ning to zumba and fit­ness boxing. In February, during our visit to Vie­remä, we got to try yet anot­her new type of exercise: mat Pila­tes.”

The encoun­ters in Fin­nish des­ti­na­tions have been memo­rable: our visits e.g. to the Jär­vi­sy­dän, Epec, Pun­ka­harju and Lup­po­linna resorts, dri­ving a Bent­ley in Mäkelä, the Little Bear’s Trail in Ruka, and a Nort­hern Lights trip in Ylläs, where rein­deer came to
the yard of our cot­tage to see what was going on.

“The pan­de­mic inter­rup­ted our acti­vi­ties, but in 2023, we were able to tra­vel again and visi­ted Kraków in Poland, where we visi­ted a museum in the His­to­ric Centre of Kraków, which is one of the UNESCO World Heri­tage Sites, and saw Oscar Schindler’s fac­tory and the Wie­liczka salt mine. We invi­ted the local Ponsse Ladies to visit the Vie­remä Day event and the Runni Spa,” says Pia Kai­nu­lai­nen.

Ten years of Ponsse Ladies’ acti­vi­ties in the Uni­ted Sta­tes

Diana Olkowski and Demi Litke take a look at Ponsse Ladies’ jour­ney in the Uni­ted Sta­tes.

Ponsse Ladies was foun­ded in the Uni­ted Sta­tes in August of 2014. The first ever event took place in con­nec­tion with the launch of the Scor­pion King har­ves­ter. Day one was a live demo with the har­ves­ter and day two was a boat trip down the Wiscon­sin River,
and that was the begin­ning of our jour­ney toget­her. We heard that there was a Ponsse Ladies Club in Fin­land that brings toget­her women wor­king in the forest mac­hine industry, so we deci­ded to start our own.

We noticed at the fore­stry shows that women would stay in their own group of family and friends, and we wan­ted to bring them all toget­her. Not in our wil­dest dreams could we have been able to ima­gine what kind of friends­hips were crea­ted and what won­der­ful moments we would expe­rience toget­her.

Ponsse Ladies meets once per year, and every event is well plan­ned. We always keep in mind that when it comes to club mee­tings, we should eit­her learn somet­hing new or donate our time to help others. For example, we have rai­sed money for the Ame­rican Cancer Society, hel­ped clean up the ocean beac­hes, ope­ra­ted Ponsse mac­hi­nes, and lear­ned about the acti­vi­ties of our network. As people often say, “It doesn’t mat­ter where we go or what we do. It’s about the time we spend toget­her.” Our Ponsse Ladies mem­bers are the best, and we wouldn’t have this group wit­hout them.

We have tra­vel­led to many places such as Fin­land, Spain and Por­tu­gal. In the Uni­ted Sta­tes, we have visi­ted Flo­rida, Wiscon­sin, Illi­nois, New York, Mary­land, and Mon­tana. In addi­tion, we have visi­ted the Ponsse North Ame­rican Headquar­ters in Rhi­ne­lan­der, Wiscon­sin and New York City with the Fin­nish Ponsse Ladies.

In 2024, the ladies will meet in August, which will be exactly ten years since we first met in August 2014. The event will be held in Gay­lord, Mic­hi­gan, where we will spend a few days toget­her. We will play golf, enjoy one another’s com­pany, and par­tici­pate in and sup­port the first-ever Mic­hi­gan Tim­ber­men Forest Pro­ducts Show. We are happy to be able to celebrate the years of friends­hip!

Wha­te­ver the future brings, we are exci­ted about where it will take us!

“We have lear­ned so much over the last 10 years from each other. We have a great group of ladies that have so many of the same inte­rests and hob­bies. It’s amazing how an industry and a com­pany can bring us all toget­her.” Diana Olkowski, Lea­der of Ponsse Ladies and Mar­ke­ting.

“Ponsse Ladies’ acti­vi­ties have been a very fun and rewar­ding time. All the moments and sto­ries we can share toget­her give mea­ning to our work. We Ponsse Ladies always say we’re a family, and these expe­riences make it real.” Demi Litke, Lea­der of Ponsse Ladies and IT/ Pro­duct Sup­port Specia­list.

“It has been amazing to be a Ponsse Lady and be able to tra­vel with the group. I love new places, and it has been really great to get to know the envi­ron­ments in which Ponsse forest mac­hi­nes work. It has been refres­hing to meet women who unders­tand what it’s like to be the wife or daugh­ter of a fore­stry mac­hine ope­ra­tor.”