28th Mondale Award and Scholarship Gala

We are pleased to announce that the 2025 Mondale Award and Scholarship Gala will be held in person on Saturday, November 15th at the Oak Ridge Country Club in Hopkins.

Reception: 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Banquet & Program: 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

Dress Code: Business Attire or Kimono

Mondale Award and Scholarship Gala 2025 Program (click here)

2025 Mondale Award Recipient: JoAnn Blatchley

My first visit to Japan changed my life. In 2004, I received a Fulbright Memorial Fund
for Teachers fellowship to spend three weeks in Japan, visiting schools, being exposed
to Japanese culture, and traveling by bullet train to Hiroshima. I returned from that
experience and wondered what else could I do continue my association with Japan and
found the Saint Paul - Nagasaki Sister City Committee which promotes friendship
between citizens of both countries. It was a perfect fit.

One of my first 'duties' as an SPNSCC board member was to make arrangements for
Sachiko Yasui, a hibakusha, to speak. Highlights of my tenure as board member and
president of SPNSCC include the Gift of (Cherry) Trees from the government of Japan
to St. Paul in 2012 and the Return of the Sword in 2013. Our 60th anniversary in 2015
included kite flyers Seikoo and Akiko Nakamura, visits by Mayor Tomihisa Taue, the
Junshin singers, city officials and ten members of the Nagasaki Bridge Club. One
highlight was the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Exhibition at the Landmark Center, which
also brought groups of school children to the exhibit and "Pictures from a Hiroshima
Schoolyard." The pandemic cancelled our 65 th anniversary celebration, but exchanges
resumed in 2023.

To celebrate our 70th anniversary in 2025, the Saint Paul Civic Symphony performed
with their sister orchestra, the Nagasaki Symphony Orchestra. Saint Paul hosted our
annual Cherry Tree Celebration, drawing some 1,000 visitors in early May. American
children and youth finished the KIDS GUERNICA mural. Mayor Suzuki of Nagasaki
brought a delegation of city council members, Rotarians and 16 junior high students in
late August. Some twenty five Minnesotans will travel to Nagasaki for Okunchi in
October.

It has been a privilege to be part of the Sister City legacy. We are an all-volunteer
organization, proving Margaret Mead's quotation: "Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that
ever has". Thank you.

Mondale Scholarship 2025-2026

It is with great pleasure that JASM presents the 2025 Mondale Scholarships to:

Minh Thu Duong (Augsburg University),

Mari Friel (St. Olaf College),

Emil Johansson (Winona State University), and

Kai Satriano (Macalester College).

Keynote Speaker: Kimmy Tanaka

Kimmy Tanaka grew up in Tamba-Sasayama, Japan where she gained an appreciation for history, architecture and food. She has a BA and a Master of Architecture from the University of Minnesota. She is the Senior Director of Inclusion, Outreach and Community Engagement for the Minnesota Historical Society, and previously worked as a program manager at Historic Fort Snelling where she developed programming around the history of the WWII Military Intelligence Service (Japanese) Language School. She also serves as the chair of the Twin Cities Japanese American Citizens League Education Committee.

Her co-authored articles include: Fuji-Ya, Second to None: Reiko Weston's Role in Reconnecting Minneapolis and the Mississippi River (2018) and Righting a Wrong: Eighty Years Since the Order That Put Japanese Americans Behind Barbed Wire (2022) for Minnesota History Magazine.

Master of Ceremonies: Gaosong V. Heu

Gaosong V. Heu is a Hmong American artist, vocalist, writer, educator, and
entrepreneur based in Saint Paul, MN. With over 15 years of training in Western
classical voice and traditional Hmong folk music, she bridges ancestral memory with
contemporary expression. She holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of
Minnesota-T.C. and a M.A. in Arts Administration from Columbia University. A
passionate advocate for cultural equity, Gaosong works at the intersection of art,
identity, and access. She currently stars in The Late Homecomer, a national one-
woman show based on Kao Kalia Yang's acclaimed memoir, produced by New York's
Literature to Life. Offstage, Gaosong is a content creator and the Co-Owner and
Creative Director of Marc Heu Pâtisserie Paris, Saint Paul's premier French dessert
destination.