GoodKaarma was honored on the 9th August 2007 with a visit by the Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, his wife Evelin & daughters Kadri-Keiu & Juulia.
more photos
Pinus nigra (Black Pine) was specially planted to mark the occasion, and the President & his wife watered the tree. The President shook hands with active local community members Maia Tõhk, Sulvi & Lemmi, Rein & Halja Orn , Eve Sagur-Õunpuu , Rein Õunpuu, Teele Koel, Liina & Teele. The First Family displayed great interest in all aspects of the GoodKaarma soap production, asking many questions, signing the guestbook and exploring the gift shop. This was followed by an informal gathering in the garden cafe where a delicious sourdough bread (made by the Ilves family) was shared, along with relaxed conversation in the late afternoon sun. The President gave a limited edition print entitled "Morning in Kadriorg" to GoodKaarma founders Ea & Stephen Greenwood.
By GoodKaarma.
Oma Saar (original article in local newspaper)
Translation of part of the article:
GoodKaarma owners were
glad that, just before the First Family's visit, the Kaarma parish
authority fixed a part of the village road leading to the soap farm
which had for a long time been in very bad condition. According to
Kaarma's roadworks manager, the fixing of the road was nothing to do
with the special visitors, but the work was a scheduled road repair.
GoodKaarma says...
While hundreds of people each week have come up the bumpy/muddy road to GoodKaarma throughout both this summer and last, and while journalists often noted it in their articles, only a very few visitors ever complained about it.
In such an event, while we would politely apologize, we would also
point out that for years hardly anybody used it. We would add
that our property used to be just another lonely farm, situated in the
middle of nowhere, almost entirely forgotten. We would say that an old forgotten place was now becoming a place worth remembering! And add finally that the road maintenance program hadn't quite caught up with the change in traffic volume.
Well, the President's team (while working out the details of his itinerary) came to check us out about a week before the scheduled visit, and of course, it had rained & rained. The road could not have been worse, and we were sure that they would cancel the whole idea (cue images of the Presidential motorcade getting towed out of mud by a decrepit tractor...). There was no way they would allow the President to be driven through that! We blew it, we thought. Damn that road.
But as it turned out, the President's team seemed to forget all about the mud once they were here. I don't know if Ea hypnotized them while I was out of the room, or what. But the visit was on!
We were genuinely surprised, and then got genuinely worried, if it continued to rain we could have a real problem with a President stuck in the mud. But as we busied ourselves over the next few days fixing stone walls, cutting grass, weeding & cleaning, the weather cleared, the sun came out, the road baked nice & dry & hard, and it looked like we would make it through OK. The Presidential shock absorbers might get a bit of a work out, but the motorcade would not get stuck.
Then the day of the visit came.
We wondered why we were having a quiet morning (the President wasn't due until later in the afternoon). And it turned out that the village road was all jammed up with a busy gang of trucks that were dumping great mounds of gravel! The Kaarma roadworks roadshow was in town! Goodbye mud, hello aggregate. LOL!
Well, while the old road had rustic charm (you knew you were going somewhere exciting, off the beaten track), we were absolutely delighted about the upgrade. And as we cannot thank either the President or the local parish officially with regard to the road (as the roadwork was merely a coincidence involving routine maintenance), we will have to thank our Feng Shui lucky stars!
President Ilves is the first Head of State to visit GoodKaarma, and we like to think that he has started a trend! If not a road building frenzy, then the visit certainly did stir up local pride and it has invigorated community feeling and motivation to a great extent. The theme of his trip was to highlight the role of small scale entrepreneurship in vitalizing rural communities. And from our perspective, the President has proved himself an extremely effective partner in this mission.
Our thanks to the President, his wife & family, and to the President's team.
GoodKaarma,
Stephen & Ea Greenwood
