Saint Paul Hello: new initiative aims to get people connected

By MARGIE O’LOUGHLIN

When Jun-Li Wang moved to St. Paul in 2004, she found it hard to connect with Minnesotans. Of Taiwanese origin, she had grown up in California with a huge extended family. “We were always inviting strangers in, and everyone was made to feel welcome,” Wang said.

PHOTO LEFT: Jun-Li Wang, St. Paul Hello visionary and founder. (Photo by Margie O’Loughlin)

Wang went to graduate school in New York, where she earned a masters degree in international development. After graduation, she worked in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. She lived in Taiwan for a year and studied Mandarin Chinese.

In short, she was used to relocating, to making her home in new and unfamiliar places. But when she moved to St. Paul, none of her old strategies worked.

Jun-Li was finally inspired to act when, almost coincidentally, she bought her first ear flap hat during the winter of 2013. It was a winter of epic proportions, even by Minnesota standards. “For the first time in eight years,” Wang said, “I wasn’t cold all winter. I couldn’t believe no one had told me to get one of these before.”

She started to think about ways to distribute warm hats to newcomers—hats with ear flaps. Then she thought further about creating events that would connect people while introducing them to resources and information about their new city.

PHOTO RIGHT: Event goers sport Minnesota winter-appropriate head gear. (Photo by Brady Willette)

Wang applied for a Knight Foundation Grant to cover the two initiatives that make up “Saint Paul Hello: Welcome Hat and Nice Breakers.” Both were funded and, on top of her full-time job with Springboard for the Arts, Wang has them up and running.

Welcome Hat held their first monthly gathering on Tues., Oct. 6 at the Minnesota Historical Society. The special Minnesota-themed guest for the month was Paul Bunyan, and Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter was on-hand to officially welcome the 200+ guests.

PHOTO RIGHT: Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter greets newcomers at the first Warm Hat event. (Photo by Sean Smuda)

To Wang’s great pleasure, 160 warm hats were given away, along with a whole lot of useful information. Twenty vendors set up resource tables with food samples from local restaurants, maps of where to find neighborhood libraries, brewery lists and much more.

“We had no idea who would come to our first event,” Wang said, “but it worked. A few of the people I spoke with had been in Minnesota for as long as three years, and were really excited to be here.” Future Welcome Hat events will be held monthly at the Minnesota Historical Society.

Nice Breakers are a series of events co-hosted by Saint Paul Hello and participating partners. Wang aspires to have 2-4 Nice Breaker events per month during this pilot year.

Previous events have been held at Fort Snelling, on the Green Line, in Leonardo’s Basement, at the Union Depot, and in deep discussion over books at the Happy Gnome Bar. Check the website at www.sphello.org to learn more about both Welcome Hat and Nice Breaker events in the future.

Wang said, “With both of our initiatives, the hope is to attract all newcomers—not just young professionals. Our goal is to help get people connected.” Toward that end, Wang and her colleagues have trained 16 Saint Paul Hello “ambassadors.” One or more of these is present at each Nice Breaker event, ready to greet newcomers and help facilitate conversations with others.

Saint Paul Hello is assisted and supported by the event planning cooperative Curious Incident, Pollen, the Minnesota Historical Society, the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, Greater MSP and Hamline Midway Coalition, and with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.