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"As always, my trips to Lithuania are very busy, packed with meetings and visits. Here are some highlights from my most recent trip – November 2-6.

I arrived in the evening of All Soul’s Day. I was met by Rolandas Auksakis, our property manager in Vilnius and Neila Baumiliene, KFF executive director in our New York office. We went straight to Antakalnis cemetery to pay our respects at my parents’ monument. It was raining, but as is traditional in Lithuania on this day, families were remembering their ancestors with prayers, flowers and candles. The entire cemetery was sparkilng with tiny flames here and there, honoring the dead. Such a beautiful tradition.

Thursday morning we met with the director of the Kasiulis Museum Ilona Mazeikiene to discuss our loan of several of the artist’s paintings which are now located in our home. A separate room would be designated as the Juozas P. Kazickas gallery, featuring mementoes, letters, an extended write-up of my father’s critical role as Kasiulis’ patron and life-long friend.

Thursday I had lunch with Vladas Lasas, a very interesting man involved in many tech ventures, including a eVTOL business. He also represents Tesla in Lithuania and is eager to get the company to build a plant in country. His staff produced a very good pitch video Minecraft Tesla Gigafactory in Lithuania

Lasas is a mover and shaker, brimming with ideas to promote Lithuania to foreign investors. He is the one who brought his good friend Richard Branson to Kaunas a few years ago. Branson and I both have honorary doctorates from KTU and that’s about all we have in common!

Friday morning we had a tour of the National Library, a beautiful building near Parliament, meeting with the head of the Damusis Center, Vidmantas Valiusaitis, to discuss ways to commemorate my father’s 100th jubilee by possibly donating papers and memorabilia to the library and producing a documentary. 2018 is a very big year - the 100th anniversary of Lithuania’s independence so there will be many national events, lectures, concerts etc.

The highlight of my stay was my visit to Rokiskis to present the “Two Ales” prize to the winner of the literary competition which Vijole Arbas and I inaugurated last June. This award honors our mothers – the famous writer Ale Ruta and her best friend, my mother, Alexandra, who grew up in this part of the country. It was a lovely evening with musical performances and warm speeches. More about the event in Lithuanian

Heading back to Vilnius on Saturday, we stopped in Pasvalys to meet with the Badaras family. We had travelled together to Ciornaya Padina, Russia, in the summer of 2016 to bring my father's ashes to his birthplace. We discussed ways to help this tiny, remote village of less than 200 people. 

We stopped in Pumpėnai (Panevezys reg.) where we met this wonderful Argentinian priest Domingo Avellaneda who is involved with the Kazickas Family Foundation Basketball Power program. This small village is where Arminas Vareika, the director of Basketball Power, grew up. He suddenly showed up that afternoon to play games with the children and join a costume party – “come as your favorite saint!”  It was obvious the children loved Arminas, Father Domingo and the nuns of the Nuestra Senora Puerta de la Senora (mission in Panevezys) who work there.

In Panevezys, we visited my mother's high school and saw the arts center which was renovated with my parents' support. We will be establishing several scholarships in my mother's memory.    

Sunday we had a very nice reception for ASSIST alumni. We are eager to engage them in community activism and especially the work of KFF. About 25 people attended, including representatives from the American Councils and the Vilnius International School, as well as Woody Rutter, a longtime ASSIST board member. We are very proud of our ASSIST sponsorship and hope the alumni who enjoyed an amazing year studying in the US will give back in a meaningful way to their homeland."