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Sometimes little towns die. Sometimes little towns thrive. Today, little towns must change to survive. In the 1990’s, Pelican Rapids (population 1800) saw an influx of over 700 refugees. This is a little town that is changing. These are some of the faces of that change. The Faces of Change is a photo and essay exhibit designed to document the changes in a small rural Minnesota community, which has undergone a large influx of refugees in the last decade, and the changes in the immigrants who came to the community of Pelican Rapids. Local freelance writer, Joan Jarvis Ellison and professional photographer, Mel Zierke have come together to create a traveling art exhibit, featuring more than 20 residents of Pelican Rapids. In the macrocosm of a community, success cannot be placed in the hands of one individual. Many people have taken part in the changes which have occurred in Pelican Rapids. Without their help, this would have been a community which died, either in actual fact, or in spirit. But people cared, and this little town is surviving, no, thriving. Those featured include: Howard Carlson, Phat and Sarah Huynh, Kathy Knudson-Olson, Izet and Dzemal Hajdar, Scott Fox, Gladys Salinas, Hank Van Cleef, Kosa and Irfan Beganovic, Jim Ruud, Israel Elizondo, Jim Christian-son, Abdi Abdi, Denise Gubrud, Jose Juan Zavala, Dianne Kimm, Thip Phomm-achalink and Brooke Weishair, Elaine Johnson, Phil and Cyndy Stotesbery, Len Zierke, Elfrieda Senn. To make reservations to host this traveling exhibit, please contact: Pelican Rapids Public Library, Pamela Westby, 25 West Mill Avenue, P. O. Box 371, Pelican Rapids, MN 56572, Phone: (218)-863-7055, Fax: (218)-863-7056. Email: pwestby@pelicanrapids.lib.mn.us Click on a picture to start the tour.
1. Elfrieda Senn: an old immigrant. Elfrieda came to Pelican Rapids as a seven-month-old German immigrant in 1912. Thirty years later, she had problems with the Immigration & Naturalization Service. Now, she looks at the changes in her adopted community with wise eyes. 2. Howard Carlson: The beginning of the change. The man who instigated the formation of a turkey processing facility in town was a turkey grower all his life. 3. Jose` Juan Zavala: from illegal immigrant to Hispanic elder. The Mexicans were the first of the most recent wave of immigrants to the community. 4. Kathy Knuteson-Olson (KKO): a mother who took a chance. KKO took in four Vietnamese children from the Unaccompanied Minors program, and brought the outside world to Pelican Rapids. 5. Elaine Johnson: a teacher in spite of herself. Elaine teaches junior high, senior high and adult English as a Second Language classes. 6. Cyndy & Phil Stotesbery: grocers who invited in the world. The Stotesberys opened an ethnic food section in their store, now shoppers come from all over for squid, tamarind juice and pickled peppers. 7. Sarah Huynh & Phat Huynh: a man who carried his daughter across Cambodia. Phat and his family came to Pelican Rapids as refugees. He has become an elder for the Vietnamese community in town. 8. Dianne Kimm: grandmother to a community. Dianne, dairy wife and mother, delivered a bed to a Vietnamese refugee family and became a different person. Now she runs the refugee resettlement program for West Central Minnesota. 9. Hank Van Cleef: if you have an emergency, dial 911. The ambulance service struggled with cultural differences and language barriers, finding that sometimes all their patients needed was direction. 10. Denise Gubrud: taking her work home in the best possible way. Denise’s job at the turkey plant involved helping the refugees. 11. Izet & Dzemal Hajdar: a tale of two brothers. The first of the Bosnians to immigrate to town, Izet and Dzemal now own homes and cars and have no debts. 12. James Ruud: the mattress man. Volunteers serve in many different ways. Retired dairy farmer and mailman James Ruud had a pickup and a strong back to haul donated furniture to immigrants’ homes. He formed friendships he had never imagined. 13. Kosa Begonivic: the other Bosnians. Kosa is Rom. Her family was looked down on in Bosnia. In America, they changed the way a community thought of Bosnians and the way they thought of themselves. 14. Jim Christianson, who couldn’t ignore people in need. Jim browbeat agencies into providing for the physical needs of the refugees. 15. Scott Fox: police chief, “On any given day, this department will handle two languages; on a busy day, it’s three; on a really busy day, four. 16. Gladys Salinas: American mother with Mexican roots. Even Americans can have problems with the Immigration & Naturalization Service. 17. Len Zierke: businessman. When the population of town grows by 22% in two months, the landlords scramble to provide housing. 18. Pelican Rapids Tigers: from street to state. A new team, 11 Hispanics, a Bosnian, two white boys & a girl take second at state. 19. Abdi Abdi: out of nothing, something. This Somali businessman looks for opportunities to build a new business in the United states after years of hiding from the soldiers in Somalia & Ethopia. 20. Israel Elizondo: bridging the gap between Hispanics & Americans. Israel brought his family to Pelican Rapids, but did not fall into the Hispanic pattern of working at the turkey plant. He works for Head Start. 21. Thip Phommochalinh & Brooke Weishair: just friends. Thip was born & raised in Minnesota by Laotian parents. Brooke was born & raised in Minnesota by American parents. They are American 13-year-olds, friends. 22. Mel Zierke: Photographer. 23. Joan Jarvis Ellison: Freelance writer. Project Background Pelican Rapids is a small community in west central Minnesota. In the last decade, refugees and other immigrants swelled the population of the town from 1800 to 2500. The community has struggled to meet the challenges caused by this influx of immigrants. Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library joined forces with two Library Board members and the library director to form a committee to find a way to preserve the stories of the immigration in Pelican Rapids. The group decided to document the stories of the refugees and immigrants who had moved to town, and the stories of the local residents who had helped them, using interviews, essays and photographs. The Faces of Change project was designed as a way to tell non-immigrants the stories of the refugees in our community, as a way to bring those refugees into the library, if at first only to see their own photographs, and finally as a way to document the stories of these people who had been through so much. The Faces of Change project became a traveling exhibit after it was displayed in Pelican Rapids. The interview subjects were all volunteers. By becoming a part of the project, they became comfortable with the library, a major step for some of them. A five-year-old Bosnian refugee said “I like the library. You get balloons and free videos there.” Her family’s first trip to the library was to see her mother’s portrait at the open house. We can think of no better way to show our acceptance and welcome of a people or a culture than to display their stories and their photographs. The portraits and essays will continue to be on view at the Visitor Center in Pelican Rapids. Often we hear only the horror stories of having immigrants move to a community: poverty, problems at school, increased need for social services, ethnic tension. In Pelican Rapids, the process has been for the most part, positive. The Faces of Change exhibit illustrates for other communities that welcoming refugees and other immigrants can be a positive, growing experience. The Faces of Change exhibit is a service from Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library and the Pelican Rapids Public Library to every community that views it. It also illustrates the power for good that a small Friends group can wield. Planning The planning group worked with other Friends members, members of the Pelican Rapids Multi-cultural Committee, staff of the Lutheran Social Services Refugee Resettlement Office, library staff members and the Otter Tail County Historical Society. A Friends member who does a lot of oral histories, created a list of interview questions. Another Friends member offered to do the interviews and write the essays. A third Friends member worked with the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota to design shipping crates for the exhibit. Friends members and library staff created the brochure that accompanies the exhibit. A Friends member wrote the newspaper articles that were used as publicity for the exhibit in Pelican Rapids. When the exhibit began traveling to other locations, volunteers spoke in those libraries about the changes in Pelican Rapids. Publicity for these events was handled by the receiving library. Participants and Audience The Faces of Change was created from ninety-minute interviews. It focused on the changes in each subject is life and the changes in Pelican Rapids. Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library members met with Pelican Rapids Public Library Board members, members of the Pelican Rapids Multi-cultural Committee, and staff of the Refugee Resettlement Office to select the individuals to be interviewed for the project. Each immigrant was interviewed about their history, why they left their home country, and their life since arriving in the United States. Each American subject was interviewed about their life in Pelican Rapids, the changes they had seen in town since the immigrants came, and the ways they themselves participated in those changes. From these interviews, the writer produced twenty-two essays. A photographer, in collaboration with the writer, took black and white candid portraits of each subject. He and his staff also framed the photographs and the essays for exhibit. Another volunteer built packing crates to be used when the exhibit began traveling. High school art students created the block prints used on the cover of the brochure. The unveiling of the Faces of Change exhibit was a part of the Pelican Rapids Public Library’s grand reopening. Friends members helped find connections of many different nationalities to provide food from over twenty different countries for the Grand Opening and unveiling. The Faces of Change project involved almost 100 volunteers, two local nonprofit organizations, two regional nonprofit organizations and the Minnesota Humanities Commission. Funding The planning group investigated different funding options and applied for several grants. Finally, a collaboration with the Otter Tail County Historical Society secured a grant for $1800 from the Minnesota Humanities Commission. Another $3000 came through a donation to the West Central Minnesota Initiative Fund. A small amount of funding came from Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library and the Pelican Rapids Public Library. This money was used to pay for the production and framing of the photographs and supplies for the creation of the traveling crates. The photographer and the writer also were paid a small amount for their time. Publicity Since appearing in the Pelican Rapids Public Library, The Faces of Change exhibit has appeared at the Lutheran Social Services’ Minnesota main office in Minneapolis, at the Otter Tail County Historical Society, at eight public libraries in other communities and at the Alexandria, Minnesota public schools. Volunteers have done presentations about the project for libraries, Rotary Clubs, the American Association of University Women and the Historical Society’s speakers series. The exhibit has been featured in three area newspapers and a trade magazine with national circulation. It was also the basis for a morning radio discussion on immigration in Alexandria, Minnesota. Evaluation and Cost Effectiveness This was a very time intensive project that wouldn’t have happened without the grant from the Minnesota Humanities Commission, a private donation, and hundreds of hours of work by many volunteers. In our estimation, it was worth every penny spent and every hour of time volunteered. Perhaps the best assessment of the success of the Faces of Change project comes from people who have seen it. On opening night, several people walked away from the exhibit with tears in their eyes. Another woman spent over 30 minutes reading all the essays and then turned away, blinded by tears, saying “I had no idea!” After viewing the exhibit and hearing a presentation, three women in a town ninety miles from Pelican Rapids persuaded their quilting group to make twenty-five quilts for the refugees in Pelican Rapids. |
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