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"Three full days in Vilnius -  Jan 25-28 – with my brothers John and Michael, who was making his first trip to Lithuania since our father’s memorial service on Thanksgiving in 2014.

We had a very busy agenda with visits and meetings but the highlight at least for me was Saturday, the Joseph P. Kazickas Memorial Basketball Power event held in Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Sports arena to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of our father Joseph’s birth in 1918. Organized by our superhero Basketball Power administrator, Arminas Vareika, it was a smashing success.

About 300 children from cities and villages all over Lithuania participated for three hours in basketball tourneys, including one for wheelchair athletes, relay races, a girls’ soccer game, and a fun game involving a rubber structure called ‘The Eliminator” where children jumped up and down on a soft bouncy surface to avoid being hit by large rubber poles. (You had to be there! The kids, especially the younger ones, loved it!)  

John, Michael and I welcomed the gathering – the children, parents, a group from Special Olympics, our wonderful coaches, numerous other volunteers, and businesses that donated their services. The place was packed and noisy with excitement. 

In my remarks, I noted that basketball had a very special place in our father’s life. No, he never played it as far as we could tell. But it was at a basketball game in Pasvalys when he was about 16 or 17 that he first laid eyes on one of the players, the beautiful Alexandra Kalvenaite. It was “her black hair and her dancing eyes that made a deep impression on me.”  Only a few years later, did he finally have a chance to meet her, then woo her, and marry her in 1941. They were together nearly 70 years before her death in 2011 at age 91.

The hours flew by quickly as we moved from one activity to the next in the arena – watching the kids compete and play. Their happy faces and sweaty T-shirts were a testimony to the power of sports and healthy activity to engage kids and bring them together.

Afterwards, they broke up into smaller groups to visit and tour sites such as the Siemens Arena, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Opel dealerships, a software development company Devbridge Group, and a mega sports shop – SportPoint.  

But back to Thursday:

That day - and all day Friday - from 9 to 5, the dining room at 13a Sv Jono street, our family home, was occupied by a team from ASSIST: board members Joe Gould and Bob Fleishman along with Jill B Thompson, director of admissions at Philip’s Andover (where our bother Alex went for high school). They were interviewing 60 students who were hoping to get one of the 6 places in the ASSIST program to study at a private school in the US. We had the opportunity to sit in for as long as we wanted to listen to the kids field questions from the US team.

What impressed me was how poised and articulate these 16,17 year olds were - speaking in perfectly fluent English, expounding on their hobbies and ambitions. It made me so proud of our young people. In fact, Gould said that Lithuanian students are among the most well regarded foreign students in their program.

Friday evening we hosted a reception for ASSIST alumni, which was well attended. Two guests were from the program back in the late 80s, (long before KFF got involved) and are now successful in their careers.

Joe, Bob and Jill stayed for dinner, which was lively and interesting.

Thursday morning we visited Vilnius Tech Park for a tour and lunch with Prof. Vladas Lasas and his daughter Dalia Lasaite who founded a very successful 3D Models company - CGTrader, as well as Mantas Katinas who works at Invest Lithuania, which is funded by the government, to encourage foreign investment in Lithuania.

On Friday, we met with representatives from Litvakworld which was created in 2011 to protect and promote Jewish heritage in Lithuania. Vilnius, after all, was once known as “the Jerusalem of the North.“ We saw the site where once stood the Great Synagogue, built in 1633 and demolished by the Soviets in 1957. Now on that site there is only a building used as a kindergarten. The plan is not to reconstruct the Synagogue, which once was the largest in Europe, but to establish some kind of memorial and educational center. The project is just getting started and I offered to help them create an advisory board of prominent New Yorkers and Americans of Lithuanian descent.

We had several meetings to discuss commemorating our father’s 100^th jubilee:

We visited the National Library for discussions about an event on June14-15. They are sponsoring a political conference that will include a lecture on the critical role the diaspora played for decades to help Lithuania on its path towards  independence in 1991, highlighting the efforts of Joseph P. Kazickas, along with Lithuanian American activists Kazys Ambrozaitis, and Adolfas Damusis. We are planning some displays of Joseph P. Kazickas memorabilia, letters and speeches, as well as a slide show or video of his life.

Also in June, the Kasiulis Museum (which Michael visited for the first time) will open a special gallery for the Kazickas family collection of his art. Many people do not realize Joseph P. Kazickas' role in the artist’s life as his patron - financing the  acquisition of an art gallery in Paris and purchasing numerous paintings, Most of all, he was a loyal and devoted friend well after Kasiulis’ creative years

Commemoration of our father’s jubilee will also include a special Young Performer’s concert on Saturday, April 14 at the Vaidila Theater, to recognize emerging young musical talent. Our father always loved to celebrate Lithuania’s culture by bringing artists to study and perform in the US so Americans would be more informed about our homeland, especially in the darkest years of the Cold War.

On Sunday April 15, at St, Casimir’s church, there will also be a special Mass followed by a concert, organized by Renata Marcinkute Lesieur and Professor Leopoldas Digrys, who came by the house to share their ideas. They are also planning to remember Mamyte with a concert on Sunday, June 17, her actual birthday.

And of course, no visit to Lithuania is complete without a stop at Antakalnis cemetery, to pay our respects to our mother and father, honor their memory and say a prayer for their heavenly peace. The monument was covered with snow and it was a chilly day, reminding us of that sad ceremony in 2014, our finite lives on this earth, but also how grateful we must be for every precious minute we were able to enjoy with our dear parents.

Please put on your calendars a trip to Lithuania for Alexandra and Joseph P. Kazickas special events:

April 12-16 and June 10-18.

Basketball Power Field Day Saturday June 16."