The executive director of Pella Historical Society has been invited to speak to historians in the Netherlands about the group of Dutch that left for America 175 years ago. Valerie Van Kooten says she’s been invited to speak about the Dutch in Pella today at a conference being held overseas next week, a journey that started four years ago when Pella Historical Society hosted a conference about Dominie Scholte. Van Kooten says there is plenty to learn about the founder of the community as historians outside of Iowa have been studying Scholte for years, and the events she’ll be attending overseas will focus on the departure of immigrants fleeing the country for religious freedom in the 1840s. Upon her return, Van Kooten says she plans to present her findings at an event in Pella to be determined.